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‘Add info and stir’: an institutional ethnographic scoping review of family care-givers’ information work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2018

Nicole K. Dalmer Open the ORCID record for Nicole K. Dalmer [Opens in a new window]
Nicole K. Dalmer*
Affiliation:
Library and Information Science, The Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
*
Email: ndalmer@uwo.ca
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Abstract

Family care-givers are increasingly expected to find, understand and use information to meet the complex needs of older adults in their care. A significant number of studies, however, continue to report that care-givers’ information needs are unmet. Following Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework, I examined 72 articles for the range and extent of available research on the information work done by family care-givers of community-dwelling older adults living with dementia. To untangle the complex relationship between information and care, this scoping review maps out (a) the ways scholarly literature conceptualises the informational components of family care-givers’ work and (b) the degree to which scholarly research acknowledges these components as work. An institutional ethnography inflection enhanced the scoping review framework, enabling the privileging of lived experiences, questioning of assumptions of language used, attending to authors’ positioning and highlighting care-givers’ information work made invisible throughout the processes of academic research.

Keywords

information workscoping reviewfamily care-giversolder adultsdementiainstitutional ethnography
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , March 2020 , pp. 663 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

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