Abstract

Primary health care(PHC) has been established since A Health Law for rural residents has been legislated in 1980 following the WHO declaration, "Health for All 2000". in 1978. PHC services are presently assumed to be provided by 2038 Community Health Practitioners(CHP) to about 28% out of rural population in Korea. Most CHPs have confronted the adaptation process to the community being practiced although a CHP's role is to evoke community participation for the improvement of their health by themselves. So the purpose of this study is to describe and explain of the commitment of CHPs into the community. Data were collected by direct interview and tape-recording under subjects' permission till theoretical saturation were occured from 6 CHPs. The subjects were 41 years old and have served in the community for 9 years in average. Main questions and concepts were explored from data according to the procedure of the grounded theory methodology. The results are as follows. 1) The number of the main concepts were twenty four that identified Motive, Desire, Personal characteristics, Unfamiliarity, Denial, Feeling of isolation, Self-sacrifice, Kindness, Patience, Assimilation, Respect for the residents, Support by the family, Support by the residents, Achievement, Acceptance of realities, Use of resources, Inducement of cooperation from the residents, Changes of the difference from time orientation between CHP and residents, Attitude as a official, Technical support, Cost management, Satisfaction level, Acknowledgement by the residents and discrepancy. 2) The twenty four concepts were categorized to seven groups such as Motivation, Feeling of Heterogeneity, Self-discipline, Social support, Induced changes in the attitudes of residents, Familarity and Persistent discrepancy. 3) The categorized groups were analyzed on the base of the Causal Conditions, Central Phenomena, Contexts, Intervening Conditions, Action / Interaction Strategies, and Consequences. Central phenomenon in this study was identified to be the feeling of heterogeneity. Community health practitioners experienced unfamiliarity and denial from the community and felt themselves isolated in the first. In time, they won the trust of residents by their efforts including self-sacrifice, kindness, patience, and assimilation. Afterward, practitioners got self-confidence and familiarity with lesser feeling of heterogeneity. Community health practitioners experienced unfamiliarity and denial from the community and felt themselves isolated in the first. In time, they won the trust of residents by their efforts including self-sacrifice, kindness, patience, and assimilation. Afterward, practitioners got self-confidence and familiarity with lesser feeling of heterogeneity. Nevertheless, practitioners could not commit themselves completely because of the persistent discrepancy between CHP and residents. 4) On the commitment process, the CHPs' feeling of heterogeneity were decresed and social support increesed and newly evolved induced change of residents through the continuous interaction between CHP and them. The contribution of this study would be concluded as follows. The contribution of this study would be concluded as follows. 1) It is expected that effective strategies for more rapid committment into the community can be developed based on this study. 2) More easy committment would be possible for the newly appointed CHP through understanding of the committment process identified on this study.