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This study is intended to contribute to improvements in nursing practice and client outcomes through the enhanced understanding of professional nurses about individual experiences, specifically older people caring for spouses at risk for falls.

A qualitative narrative approach using two relatively new methods, visit and interpretive photography, were used as research tools. Using a purposeful sample of caregivers fiom the control group of a larger quantitative study on falls, four seniors of spouses who had experienced a fall were contacted. Repeated visits built the relational narrative and the photographs provided further depth. Analysis identified the shared experience of the significance of the fall(s), sacrifice of self, marital discord, and supportive relationships.

The implications for nursing are identified in terms of clinical, research and education in light of the research narrative accounts. The outcome is a grounding of nursing care that is based on expanded understanding of older adults.