Associations between frailty risk and gendered ageism: A nurse practitioner shift towards health equity for 'old' women
| dc.contributor.author | Woodley, Jinelle | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Bruce, Anne | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Newton, Lorelei | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-09-05T17:25:06Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-09-05T17:25:06Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Nursing | |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy PhD | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation advances understandings of associations between gendered ageism and frailty risk for women to generate priority considerations for shifts in NP knowledge development and practice. Healthcare of older adults is regarded as a healthcare priority related to a rapidly growing older adult population and escalating rates of frailty, particularly amongst ‘old’ women. Nurse Practitioners (NP) are uniquely positioned to serve as most appropriate care providers for frailty risk and gendered ageism because of their mandate to optimize health from perspectives of holism, complexity, and associated health inequities. However, a paucity of knowledge exists to inform NP approaches to the healthcare of ‘old’ women in regard to frailty risk and gendered ageism, with particular gaps in understanding from intersectional, qualitative, nursing, and critical feminist angles of vision. The overall purpose of the study was to describe and interpret associations between frailty risk and gendered ageism. Data sources included 14 published autobiographical and 12 semi-structured in-depth participant interview narratives of critical feminist ‘old’ women. The exploration was oriented by a critical feminist gerontology lens, qualitative study design, interpretive description (ID) methodology, and narrative thematic analysis methods. Data collection and analysis occurred concurrently with a focus on potential themes or patterns. Generated understandings of associations between gendered ageism and frailty risk are themed as: 1) shroud of conflation of ‘old’ and ‘frail’; 2) self-inflicted typification; and 3) socially imposed typism. Extended interpretation situates priority generated understandings in existing literature. This study invites next logical steps for NP knowledge development and practice shifts to improve health and health equity for ‘old’ women by considering generated understandings of associations between gendered ageism and frailty risk to broaden the angle of vision from individualistic to systemic and create safer spaces for women to claim ‘old’ and ‘frail’ free from discriminatory assumptions and responses. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22726 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.subject | Frailty | |
| dc.subject | Gendered Ageism | |
| dc.subject | Health Equity | |
| dc.subject | Nurse Practitioner | |
| dc.subject | Women's Health | |
| dc.title | Associations between frailty risk and gendered ageism: A nurse practitioner shift towards health equity for 'old' women | |
| dc.type | Thesis |