When Your Patient Is a Farm Family: Challenges Farm Wives Perceive in Promoting Farm Family Health

This study explored farm wives’ perceptions of the challenges they face in maintaining their family health. Farm wives from eastern North Carolina were interviewed. The overarching question was “How do farm families maintain and promote their health?” The Colaizzi method of data analysis for phenomenological studies was used to identify major themes in the data. The primary challenge to farm family health, according to farm wives, is stress arising from several factors. Some sources of stress, such as weather and market prices, are not amenable to control; others, however, are amenable to intervention from nurse practitioners.