Rural Elders Are Active in Own Care

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An honorable mention for graduate-student research went to Susan M. Hinck, an assistant professor in the Department of Nursing at Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Mo. Her doctoral research at St. Louis University in 2002, supported by an individual National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Nursing Research, yielded the paper "The Lived Experience of Oldest-Old Rural Adults."

Hinck focused her study on 19 elders, whose mean age was 90.7 years, to identify how rural-dwelling men and women perceive the experience of living alone in their own homes. She wrote, "Older people should not be viewed as passive recipients of care but as active members …