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Phenomenological Study (phenomenological + study)
Kinds of Phenomenological Study Selected AbstractsVulvar Pain: A Phenomenological Study of Couples in Search of Effective Diagnosis and TreatmentFAMILY PROCESS, Issue 2 2008JENNIFER J. CONNOR PH.D. Vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS), a vulvar pain disorder, continues to puzzle medical and mental health professionals due to its unknown etiology and lack of effective treatment. This study used transcendental phenomenology methodology to explore the experiences of couples in which the woman has a diagnosis of VVS. Sixteen in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 heterosexual couples and 3 women. Four essences emerged: (1) In search of, the medical journey required extensive searching for knowledgeable and respectful practitioners to provide treatment. (2) The process of developing a personal understanding of this disorder led many couples to question their role in causing and maintaining VVS. (3) Developing strategies for coping with painful intercourse led to three strategies: becoming non-sexual, using alternatives to vaginal sex, and altering or enduring painful intercourse. (4) Feelings of isolation were experienced as adapting to this chronic pain syndrome was often a lonely process. Clinical suggestions included: treating the couple, not just the woman with VVS; encouraging couples to broaden definitions about the importance and primacy of vaginal intercourse and suggest alternative sexual activities less likely to cause vulvar pain; developing shared meaning as a couple, and assisting couples in locating physicians and resources. Suggestions are relevant for couples with VVS and those with chronic health problems affecting sexual relationships. RESUMEN Dolor vulvar: estudio fenomenológico de parejas que buscan un diagnóstico y tratamiento efectivos El síndrome de vestibulitis vulvar (svv), un trastono de dolor vulvar, continúa dejando perplejos a los profesionales de la salud física y mental debido a su etiología desconocida y a la inexistencia de un tratamiento efectivo. Este estudio utilizó metodología fenomenológica experimental para explorar las experiencias de parejas en que a la mujer se le ha diagnosticado el svv. Se llevaron a cabo dieciséis entrevistas (en profundidad y semiestructuradas) con 13 parejas heterosexuales y 3 mujeres, de las que se obtuvieron cuatro conclusiones esenciales: (1) En busca de , la investigación médica requería una búsqueda más exhaustiva de médicos eruditos y respetuosos que aportasen un tratamiento. (2) El proceso de desarrollar una comprensión personal del trastorno condujo a varias parejas a plantearse su papel en la causa y la prolongación del svv. (3) Desarrollar estrategias para afrontar un coito doloroso condujo a tres estrategias: prescindir del sexo, optar por alternativas al sexo vaginal y modificar o soportar el coito doloroso. (4) Se experimentaron sensaciones de aislamiento, pues el proceso de adaptación a este síndrome de dolor crónico resultó, a menudo, un proceso solitario. Entre los consejos clínicos se incluyen tratar a la pareja, y no sólo a la mujer con svv; animar a las parejas a ampliar las definiciones de la importancia y preferencia por el coito vaginal, así como sugerir actividades sexuales con menor riesgo de causar dolor vulvar; desarrollar un significado común como pareja; y ayudar a las parejas a encontrar médicos y recursos. Palabras clave: síndrome de vestibulitis vulvar; dolor vulvar; terapia de pareja. [source] Relating information-needs to the cancer experience.EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER CARE, Issue 1 2000This paper is based on a phenomenological study that used narratives to explore lived cancer experiences. The aim of the study was to determine the important issues for people with cancer that arose out of their cancer experience, and to place their information-needs within the stages of the cancer trajectory. The literature highlights the importance of information-giving; however, many problems are encountered with its provision. People with cancer frequently express dissatisfaction with the information given to them and experience difficulty in retaining and processing information. Six individuals were invited to tell the story of their cancer experience through in-depth interviews and narrative analysis uncovered thematic aspects of the lived experience. One interview in particular stood out as capturing the essence of a lived experience. Jenny's narrative had a beginning, a middle and an end, features that are traditionally associated with stories. This paper focuses on her story in depth, and illustrates the extent to which cancer can impinge on normal coping mechanisms. A diagnosis of cancer cannot be isolated from the other events in an individual's life, and themes emerged which showed that cancer impacts on different aspects of an individual's self-identity, including body image, family, social and work relationships. The cancer experience invariably begins before the point of diagnosis and information-needs clearly change over time. [source] A phenomenological study of spirituality and learning processes at work: Exploring the holistic theory of knowledge and learningHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2007Suzanne J. Gallagher The holistic theory of knowledge and learning offers an integrative framework for understanding the interactions of cognitions, feelings, and behavior in learning. Explicit (cognitions), implicit ( behavior), and emancipatory (feelings, values, spirituality) knowledge facets interact in learning processes. Little is known, however, about the nature of these interactions and the role of spirituality in learning. A phenomenological study of professionals' learning processes at work showed that knowledge facets interact in learning through expressing, informing, changing, and guiding one another. Complex interactions within knowledge facets were identified as well as the dangers of learning using only one knowledge facet. The essential role of community in learning processes was affirmed, and the guiding, informing role of spirituality in learning at work was revealed. [source] Overcoming strangeness and communication barriers: a phenomenological study of becoming a foreign nurseINTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 4 2005H. Magnusdottir rn Background:, This paper presents a study that explored the lived experience of foreign nurses working at hospitals in Iceland. Aim:, The aim was to generate an understanding of this experience both for local and international purposes. Method:, The methodology that guided the study was the Vancouver school of doing phenomenology. Sampling was purposeful and consisted of 11 registered nurse from seven countries. The data were collected in dialogues; the analyses were thematic. Findings:, The findings are presented in five main themes that describe the essence of the experience with the overall theme of ,Growing through experiencing strangeness and communication barriers'. The first theme portrays how the nurses met and tackled the multiple initial challenges. One of the challenges, described in the second theme, was becoming outsiders and needing to be let in. The third theme explores the language barrier the nurses encountered and the fourth theme the different work culture. The fifth then illuminates how the nurses finally overcame these challenges and won through. Conclusion:, The findings and their international context suggest the importance of language for personal and professional well-being and how language and culture are inseparable entities. [source] Caring for abused women: impact on nurses' professional and personal life experiencesJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 8 2009Hadass Goldblatt Abstract Title.,Caring for abused women: impact on nurses' professional and personal lifeexperiences. Aim., This article is a report of a study of the impact of caring for abused women on nurses' professional and personal life experiences. Background., Encountering abused women can have emotional, cognitive and behavioural influences on nurses, known as vicarious traumatization. They may feel incompetent to deal with such an overwhelming problem and may avoid screening survivors of abuse. Thus, nurses treating these survivors need to be aware of their attitudes, emotions and differential responses during these interactions. Method., A phenomenological study was carried out in 2005 in Israel. The data were collected using in-depth, interviews with 22 female Israeli nurses in hospitals and community healthcare clinics. Findings., Data analysis revealed one main theme, ,Struggling on work and home fronts', based on two subthemes: ,Encounter with domestic violence: a challenge to nurses' professional role perception' and ,Between work and home'. Nurses experience perplexity regarding abused women and their professional care. Encounters with these women challenge nurses' personal and professional attitudes, as well as influencing their personal lives (intimate relationships, parenthood and gender attitudes). These encounters induce empathy and compassion, but also anger and criticism towards abused women, creating emotional labour for the nurses. Conclusion., The dissonance between personal values, attitudes and emotions and the desirable professional intervention procedures might impede nurses' performance in caring for abused women. Implementing training programmes for screening and intervening with abused women might reduce the emotional labour required, enhance nurses' responses to domestic violence, and enable personal growth. [source] Explicating Benner's concept of expert practice: intuition in emergency nursingJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 4 2008Joy Lyneham Abstract Title.,Explicating Benner's concept of expert practice: intuition in emergency nursing. Aim., This paper is a report of a study exploring the experience of intuition in emergency nursing in relation to Benner's fifth stage of practice development, ,the expert practitioner.' Background., Expert nurses anecdotally report actions and thoughts that present in their consciousness and have an impact on the care given. Benner used the term ,intuition' for the fifth stage of practice development. However, Paley has criticized Benner's model for its lack of clarity about the nature of an expert practitioner. This criticism is further justified by Benner's inadequate explanation of expert. Method., A hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted using van Manen's approach and a Gadamerian analysis. Fourteen expert emergency nurses in Australia were interviewed between January 2000 and December 2003. Findings., The analysis resulted in the reconstruction of Benner's expert stage into three distinct phases: cognitive intuition, where assessment is processed subconsciously and can be rationalized in hindsight; transitional intuition, where a physical sensation and other behaviours enter the nurse's awareness; and embodied intuition, when the nurse trusts the intuitive thoughts. Conclusion., The findings validate the use of intuitive decision-making as a construct in explaining expert clinical decision-making practices. The validity of intuitive practice should be recognized. It is essential to recognize the conditions that support practice development, and in the prenovice stage (during their university course) factors such as reflection, research (in its broadest sense) and clinical curiosity should be fostered. [source] Living with uncertainty: concept advancementJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 6 2007Janice Penrod Abstract Aim., This paper reports a study to demonstrate how the scientific understanding of the concept of uncertainty was advanced through a phenomenological study of living with uncertainty. Background., Techniques for concept analysis have evolved to subsume strategies for advancing a concept towards greater clarity and utility for research and practice. Recently, it has been argued that a clear delineation of techniques for concept analysis as separate and distinct from techniques of concept advancement is warranted. This article applies such delineated processes to demonstrate the advancement of the concept of uncertainty. Method., Concept analysis was used to establish an integrated understanding of the state of the science. Gaps in understanding were carefully analysed, resulting in the research question guiding the next phase of concept advancement: what is the nature of the lived experience of uncertainty? A phenomenological investigation of the experience of uncertainty among family caregivers was conducted. Then, using methods of template comparison, the conceptual attributes identified through the phenomenological study were compared and contrasted with the theoretical definition derived through concept analysis. Finally, a new conceptual definition of higher order abstraction, with greater pragmatic utility, was derived. Findings., Uncertainty is rooted in the individual's perception of outcomes or meaning of a situation. Such perceptions challenge one's sense of confidence and/or control to yield varied types and modes of uncertainty. Uncertainty is present oriented. Both cognitive and precognitive ways of knowing are influential in ascribing meaning, anticipating outcomes and adapting strategies. Conclusions., One's sense of confidence and sense of control are primary essences that determine the nature of the experience of uncertainty. The experience of living with uncertainty is dynamic, with fluctuations in the types and modes of uncertainty in response to precognitive and cognitive ways of knowing. Probabilistic paradigms preclude existential and situational modes of uncertainty for which probabilities cannot be appreciated. [source] Living with stroke: a phenomenological studyJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2000Christopher R. Burton PGCertHE BN RGN Living with stroke: a phenomenological study Understanding how stroke sufferers experience their stroke and recovery is essential if the development of rehabilitation services is to be effective and appropriate. Previous research in this area has tended to be either cross-sectional or with a limited amount of informant follow-up, and consequently has limited utility. This paper describes a study underpinned by a phenomenological approach, which tracked the experiences of six patients admitted to a rehabilitation unit in the north-west of England. Informants were followed for at least 12 months after stroke, and a total of 73 interviews were undertaken during the study. The data demonstrate that recovery from stroke involved restructuring and adaptation in physical, social and emotional aspects of an individual's life. Two important features of recovery were highlighted. First, whilst aspects of pre-stroke life may be used to describe individual progress, no end-point to recovery was identified as informants described and anticipated life with stroke. Second, informants focused on the social context of recovery where engagement in the social world was emphasized over discrete physical function. Although no common path of recovery was found, it is recommended that stroke services are structured to take account of the long-term needs of stroke patients and their families in their home environment. [source] South Asian patients' lived experience of acute care in an English hospital: a phenomenological studyJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 1 2000Vasso Vydelingum PhD BSc(Hons) PG DipEd RN RHV DN South Asian patients' lived experience of acute care in an English hospital: a phenomenological study Studies on utilization of hospital services by South Asian patients in the United Kingdom have consistently demonstrated levels of dissatisfaction with care in relation to meeting religious and cultural needs, although there are few studies on minority ethnic patients' utilization of acute hospital services. This study aimed to describe and interpret from the consumer's view the ,lived experience' of acute hospital care from the perspectives of South Asian patients and their family carers. The purposive sample of 10 patients and six carers consisted of 13 females and three males (five Hindus, six Muslims and five Sikhs) who were interviewed at home 2 to 3 weeks after discharge from hospital. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews that were tape recorded and transcribed. A phenomenological approach was used, and data were analysed using the principles of Heideggerian hermeneutics. Five themes were identified, ranging from feelings of satisfaction with care, unhappy about the service, fitting-in strategies and post-discharge coping mechanisms. Patients seemed to want to cause as little disruption as possible to the ward environment and tried to fit in to what they refer to as an ,English place'. The findings, although not generalizable, offer important insights into how South Asian patients survive their journey through their hospital stay and have implications for the provision of nursing care for minority ethnic patients. [source] A phenomenological study of ripening of salted herring.JOURNAL OF CHEMOMETRICS, Issue 2 2002Assessing homogeneity of data from different countries, laboratories Abstract Data from ripening experiments of herring carried out at three Nordic fishery research institutions in the period 1992,1995 were collected and analyzed by multivariate analysis. The experiments were carried out at different times, with different stocks as raw material, using different types of treatments and analyzed in different laboratories. The question considered here is whether these data can be assumed to be one homogeneous set of data pertaining to ripening of salted herring or whether data from different labs, stocks, etc. must be considered independently. This is of importance for further research into ripening processes with these and similar data. It is shown in this paper that all data can be considered as one homogeneous data set. This is verified using resampling where latent structures are compared between different sample sets. This is done indirectly by testing regression models, that have been developed on one sample set, on other sample sets. It is also done directly by monitoring the deviation in latent structure observed between different sample sets. No formal statistical test is developed for whether samples can be assumed to stem from the same population. Although this can easily be envisioned, it was exactly the need for a more intuitive and visual test that prompted this work, developing different exploration tools that visually make it clear how well the data can be assumed to derive from the same population. Subsequently analyzing the data as one homogeneous group provides new information about factors that govern the ripening of salted herring and can be used in new strategic research as well as in industrial practice. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The challenge of caring for patients in pain: from the nurse's perspectiveJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 20 2009Katrin Blondal Aim., To increase understanding of what it is like for nurses to care for patients in pain. Background., Hospitalised patients are still suffering from pain despite increased knowledge, new technology and a wealth of research. Since nurses are key figures in successful pain management and research findings indicate that caring for suffering patients is a stressful and demanding experience where conflict often arises in nurses' relations with patients and doctors, it may be fruitful to study nurses' experience of caring for patients in pain to increase understanding of the above problem. Design., A phenomenological study involved 20 dialogues with 10 experienced nurses. Results., The findings indicate that caring for a patient in pain is a ,challenging journey' for the nurse. The nurse seems to have a ,strong motivation to ease the pain' through moral obligation, knowledge, personal experience and conviction. The main challenges that face the nurse are ,reading the patient', ,dealing with inner conflict of moral dilemmas', ,dealing with gatekeepers' (physicians) and ,organisational hindrances'. Depending upon the outcome, pain management can have positive or negative effects on the patient and the nurse. Conclusions., Nurses need various coexisting patterns of knowledge, as well as a favourable organisational environment, if they are to be capable of performing in accord with their moral and professional obligations regarding pain relief. Nurses' knowledge in this respect may hitherto have been too narrowly defined. Relevance to clinical practice., The findings can stimulate nurses to reflect critically on their current pain management practice. By identifying their strengths as well as their limitations, they can improve their knowledge and performance on their own, or else request more education, training and support. Since nurses' clinical decisions are constantly moulded and stimulated by multiple patterns of knowledge, educators in pain management should focus not only on theoretical but also on personal and ethical knowledge. [source] The challenges of caring in a technological environment: critical care nurses' experiencesJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 8 2008ITU cert, Mary McGrath MSc Purpose., This paper presents and discusses the findings from a phenomenological study which illuminated the lived experiences of experienced critical care nurses caring within a technological environment. Background., While nursing practice is interwoven with technology, much of the literature in this area is speculative. Moreover, there is a debate as to whether and how ,high tech' and ,high touch' are reconcilable; this orientation is referred to as the optimism vs. pessimism debate. On a personal level, the motivation for this study came from the author's 13 years' experience in the critical care area. Method., Following ethical approval, 10 experienced nurses from two cardiothoracic critical care units in Ireland participated in the study. A Heideggerian phenomenological methodology was used. Data collection consisted of unstructured interviews. A method of data analysis described by Walters was used. Findings., The findings provide research-based evidence to illuminate further the optimistic/pessimistic debate on technology in nursing. While the study demonstrates that the debate is far from resolved, it reveals a new finding: life-saving technology that supports the lives of critically ill patients can bring experienced nurses very close to their patients/families. The three main themes that emerged: ,alien environment', ,pulling together' and ,sharing the journey' were linked by a common thread of caring. Conclusion., Experienced critical care nurses are able to transcend the obtrusive nature of technology to deliver expert caring to their patients. However, the journey to proficiency in technology is very demanding and novice nurses have difficulty in caring with technology. Relevance to clinical practice., It is recommended that more emphasis be placed on supporting, assisting and educating inexperienced nurses in the critical care area and that the use of technology in nursing be given serious consideration. [source] Nursing the clinic vs. nursing the patient: nurses' experience of a day hospital chemotherapy serviceJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 9 2006Sonja Mcilfatrick PhD Aims and objectives., This study sought to explore the nurses' experience of a day hospital chemotherapy service in an acute general hospital in Northern Ireland and how this compared with their experience of working in an inpatient setting. Background., Despite the many changes taking place in cancer care delivery, little research has been conducted on nurses' experience of working in more acute cancer treatment settings. Research conducted to date has tended to focus on the role of nurses in wards, hospices and palliative care settings. Design., This Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological study explored nurses' lived experience of day hospital chemotherapy service. Method., Face-to-face focused in-depth interviews were conducted with the total population of nurses who worked in the day hospital at the time of data collection (n = 10). Data analysis involved a two-staged approach, the analysis of narratives and narrative analysis, based on the work of Polkinghorne (1995). Conclusions., The nurses' viewed their experience of the chemotherapy day hospital as having both positive and negative dimensions. The positive dimensions included an increased sense of autonomy and the challenge of developing new skills, while the negative dimension included a perceived decrease in their caring role: (i),The individual characteristics of the nurse were seen to have a key influence on caring experience; (ii),Role changes led to a perceived dichotomy between their actual and aspired role and their caring and clinical role. Relevance to clinical practice., There is a need to achieve a balance between delivering a clinical role (administering chemotherapy) while maintaining the centrality of the nurse,patient relationship. This can be likened to achieving a balance between ,nursing the clinic' alongside ,nursing the patient'. These findings have implications for the discourse on caring within other outpatient type clinics and discourse on cancer nursing as therapy and the culture of the cancer clinic. [source] Lower urinary tract symptoms: a hermeneutic phenomenological study into men's lived experienceJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 2 2005BSc (Hons), Mark Wareing MSc Aim., This was an investigation to discover the lived experience of men with lower urinary tract symptoms arising from benign prostatic hyperplasic. Design., A hermeneutic phenomenological study. Methods., Approval was granted by the local Applied and Qualitative Research Ethics Committee (AQREC) prior to the commencement of the study. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews that were audio taped, and subsequently transcribed. Each transcripted interview was analysed by the investigator and a team of ,expert readers'. The team agreed on a total of 57 sub-themes divided into seven categories with unanimity, therefore obviating the need for participant validation. Findings., The major findings of the study suggest that men experience a broad and dramatic spectrum of phenomena while living with a benign prostate condition. This includes profound embarrassment, fear, revulsion as well as humour that require a range of methods and life adjustments to manage and contain their symptoms. Conclusions., The participant's narratives provide a thick, rich and meaningful insight into how men understand their bodies, and make sense of prostate disease; a significant men's health issue. Relevance to clinical practice., Several studies have already been published describing men's lived experience of prostate surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia. This research has captured men's lived experience of lower urinary tract symptoms ahead of surgical intervention. Men experience a broad scope of phenomena resulting from life with a benign prostate condition that encompasses fear and embarrassment and the development of coping mechanisms and changes in life style. Recent media awareness campaigns to raise public awareness of prostate disease as a men's health issue appear to be changing how men perceive their bodies, how they converse with one another, and their help seeking behaviour. [source] Understanding the elements of empathy as a component of care-driven leadershipJOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP STUDIES, Issue 1 2009Yosep Undung Empathy plays a pivotal role in educational leadership practice. It creates and maintains a sound and dynamic interpersonal milieu in dynamic social enterprises such as schools, colleges, and universities. A phenomenological study was conducted to probe deeper the meaning of empathy as it is lived and constituted in the awareness of a select group of 13 Filipino academic administrators representing colleges in the Philippines. Anchored on the central question, "how do Filipino academic administrators collectively typify in their school leadership practices the elements of empathic concern, perspective taking, and empathic matching," semistructured (Patton, 1990) and in-depth interviews were conducted. Field texts were analyzed via a repertory grid. Through constant comparative analyses, an interesting set of conceptual categories notably describes the human and humane side of a caring leader, typified in the ability to effect listening, confluencing, and scaffolding in the journey with the faculty. [source] Juggling multiple temporalities: the shift work story of mid-life nursesJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2009PhD (Macq), SANDRA WEST BSc (Macq) Aim, To explore the theme of multiple temporalities revealed through a phenomenological study of the experience of mid-life shift-working nurses. Background, There are few data on the experience of mid-life women working rotating shift systems that change frequently. Concomitantly, the age profile of the current nursing workforce demands exploration of such issues. Method, This phenomenological study sought the perspectives of 13 shift-working mid-life women. Results, Sociological discussion of the temporal nature of work describes temporality as the clock time associated with an individual as determined by the constraints of their life. Transcript analysis identified the numerous temporalities surrounding a shift-working mid-life woman and a sense of disjunction between the temporalities of individuals important to them which resulted in feelings of regret and guilt. The concept of juggling is introduced to illustrate the participants' need to ,keep everything going' for important individuals in their lives. Conclusion, The personal cost of effective juggling may be high for the jugglers themselves but also for health systems that provide the mid-life shift-working nurse with no alternative than a reduction in working hours. Implications for nursing management, The development of a personal ,time map' framed within the concept of multiple temporalities is suggested for use as a staff development tool to assist with staff retention by facilitating both group and individual discussions of rostering and the complexities of managing an intergenerational work force undertaking shift work. [source] Understanding and Responding to Patients' Requests for Assistance in DyingJOURNAL OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP, Issue 4 2003Judith Kennedy Schwarz Purpose: To explore how nurses experience and respond to patients' requests for assistance in dying (AID). Design and Methods: A phenomenological study of 10 self-selected nurses. Findings: Four major themes: Being Open to Hear and Hearing; Interpreting and Responding to the Meaning; Responding to Persistent Requests for AID, and Reflections. When faced with persistent requests for AID, participants provided a continuum of interventions: refusal, providing palliative care that might secondarily hasten dying, respecting and not interfering with patients' or families' plans to hasten dying, and providing varying types and degrees of direct AID. Their responses were context-driven rather than rule-mandated, and they drew a distinction between secondarily hastening and directly causing death. Conclusions: Few nurses in this study unequivocally agreed or refused to directly help a patient die. Most struggled alone and in silence to find a morally and legally acceptable way to help patients who persisted in requesting AID. Regardless of how they responded, many described feelings of conflict, guilt, and moral distress. [source] A phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of mental health nurses who care for clients with enduring mental health problems who are parentsJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 8 2010S. MADDOCKS mnurssci rn Accessible summary ,,Among people with mental health problems, those who are parents may not have their needs met, especially when receiving inpatient care. ,,There is little research regarding the needs of this group. ,,An integrated model of care is required. Abstract This paper is a report of a study to explore mental health nurses' lived experience of caring for adults with enduring mental health problems who are parents. With the advent of community care, more people with enduring mental health problems have contact with their families and are parents. Ultimately, rehabilitative strategies for parents with mental health problems are focused towards functioning effectively within their own family unit and hopefully enabling them to fulfil their parental role. Mental health nurses working with this client group have competing demands to reconcile. For example, advocating for client rights versus protecting the child and supporting the family. This phenomenological study took place within adult mental health services in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six nurses. A thematic analysis was conducted on the data. Five themes were identified from the data: support, remaining impartial, addressing the specific needs of a client who is a parent, models of care and interagency communication. The findings suggest that neither a family-centred nor a person-centred approach to care completely meets the needs of this client group. An integrated model of care is proposed that applies person-centred and family-centred approaches in tandem. [source] The experiences of carers in Taiwanese culture who have long-term schizophrenia in their families: a phenomenological studyJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 10 2009X.-Y. HUANG rn msc dnsc Accessible summary ,,Carers in families with long-term schizophrenia in Taiwanese culture are suffering several burdens, such as burdens of caring and emotional burdens. ,,Strategies of coping, cognitive and religious coping strategies were used by carers in order to cope with their burdens. ,,The awareness of such traditional cultural values would help people to provide care in a culturally sensitive manner. Abstract Schizophrenia is a severe illness with little hope of recovery and requires long-term care. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of carers who live with someone with long-term schizophrenia, within the cultural context of Taiwan. The study was conducted in a community setting in central Taiwan. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of carers. Purposive sampling was used by selecting the carers who were close relatives of the clients, had lived with the clients for at least 1 year and bore most of the responsibilities. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect the data and narratives were analysed using Colaizzi's (1978) seven-step method. Data saturation was achieved after interviewing 10 carers. Three themes and eight sub-themes were identified: burdens of caring (helping clients' illness, lack of professional support and family conflicts), emotional burdens (sadness, worry and fear) and strategies of coping (cognitive and religious coping strategies). Our study supported the importance for nurses to understand the cultural aspects of mental illness, particularly the widespread cultural beliefs and patterns of help seeking behaviours, in order to provide culturally sensitive health care. [source] Experiencing psychiatric diagnosis: client perspectives on being named mentally ill,JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 6 2003Y. M. HAYNE rn phd In this article is reported result of a phenomenological study whereby privileged view was gained into the lives of persons who had experienced receiving a diagnosis which named ,severe and enduring mental illness'. Thematic analysis yielded the four essential themes of diagnosis as the experience of ,a knowledge that knows', ,destructive (gift) of difference', ,making visible the invisible' and ,making knowledge knowledgeable'. Each of the themes is discussed under its own heading in this paper as a means for describing the nature of ,experiencing psychiatric diagnosis'. Effort is made to provide glimpse into the ,lifeworld' of being diagnosed mentally ill, and the reader's attention is directed to a particular kind of power that exists in the medical language of diagnoses. Discernment is highlighted as most consequential to an ,action sensitive practice' and a case is made for care-providers in psychiatric-mental health care to be sensitized to how medical terminology is experienced and the need to strive for balance within the ,economy of power' contained in these specialized words. [source] Living with chronic illness: A phenomenological study of the health effects of the patient,provider relationshipJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS, Issue 3 2008Associate Professor of Nursing), CNS (Psychiatric, Mental Health Clinical Specialist, Sylvia Fox PhD Abstract Purpose: To understand the patient,healthcare provider (HCP) relationship from the lived experience of women with chronic disease and determine how this relationship affects women's health. Data sources: Narrative accounts of 25 women's relationships with HCPs in repeated group and individual interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Interpretive phenomenology was used to explore the data using three interconnected modes of paradigm cases, exemplars, and themes. Conclusions: Women with chronic disease believed their health was significantly affected by their relationships with HCPs. They experienced a greater sense of well-being and security in connected relationships and had more confidence and motivation to manage their illness. Implications for practice: This research suggests that for women with chronic disease, relationships with HCPs that are connected, and characterized by partnership, and personableness result in the women feeling better in many dimensions. The context of today's healthcare system often pushes the nurse practitioner (NP) to provide care more attuned to medical issues, leaving little time for the development of connected relationships. In spite of this pressure, NPs need to strive to develop relationships with patients that are intersubjective/connected. [source] Early clinical exposure to people who are dying: learning to care at the end of lifeMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2003R D MacLeod Background, The nature of medical care at the end of life and, in particular, the way in which caring is learned remain problematic for medical educators and the profession. Recent work has indicated that doctors learn to care, in an emotional and intimate way, from people who are dying. Methods, This paper reports on the development of a programme designed for medical students in their first clinical year who spend time with a person who is dying and their family. The students are required to produce a portfolio assignment that includes a personal reflection of the experience. The findings from a phenomenological study undertaken using these personal reflections are reported. These reflections and comments are interpreted as being embedded in five key themes. Results, The actual encounters differed from the medical students' anticipation of them. Students identified an emotional component to the experience; they explored their own and the patient's understandings of spirituality; they reflected on personal meanings of the encounter and they suggested ways in which they might learn to care more effectively for people who are dying. Discussion, The way in which many of these students approach end-of-life care has been altered through a transformative educational experience that encouraged them to draw on their own experiences and skills. Their learning was facilitated by the writing of accounts and the discussion that each group held with teaching staff at the conclusion of the programme. [source] A Study of the Emergence of Cooperation in MediationNEGOTIATION JOURNAL, Issue 2 2005Jean Poitras All mediators confront the challenge of how to encourage cooperation among parties in a mediation. Based on a phenomenological study of workplace mediation, this article explores the variables that are linked to the emergence of cooperation between parties. In the first part of the study, factors influencing the desire to cooperate are identified and categorized, based upon whether they help or hinder cooperation. The second part of the study compares the characteristics of cooperative and antagonistic mediation climates in order to better understand how cooperation is established during the mediation process. Based on the findings, strategies are proposed to help mediators facilitate the transition of an antagonistic climate into a cooperative one and thereby encourage the emergence of cooperation. [source] A phenomenological study of the mechanical properties of long-fiber filled injection-molded thermoplastic compositesPOLYMER COMPOSITES, Issue 5 2000V. K. Stokes Tensile and flexural tests on specimens cut from rectangular injection-molded plaques show that long-fiber filled thermoplastic composites are complex, non-homogeneous, anistropic material systems. Like all fiber-filled materials, they exhibit through-thickness nonhomogeneity as indicated by differences between tensile and flexural properties. The in-plane orientation of fibers in through-thickness layers causes the material to have in-plane anisotropic properties. However, these long-fiber filled materials exhibit an unexpectedly large level of in-plane nonhomogeneity. Also, the effective mechanical properties of these materials are strongly thickness dependent. The thinnest plaques exhibit the largest differences between the flow and cross-flow tensile properties. These differences decrease with increasing thickness. A methodology for part design with this class of materials is discussed. [source] On the stereochemical composition of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and polypropylene (PP): a phenomenological studyPOLYMER INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2003Nekane Guarrotxena Abstract The number of mmr- and rrm-based structures which occur necessarily whenever an isotactic or a syndiotactic sequence breaks off respectively; the extent to which they are isolated or are extended to atactic sequences, and the fact that the mmr repeating sequence, especially when it takes the GTTG,TT conformation, is shorter and exhibits greater local free volume than rrm, mmm and rrr sequences, are shown to be the stereochemical composition determining structures in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and polypropylene (PP) polymers. These structures, as analyzed by 13C NMR spectroscopy and probability calculations, have been determined as a function of the overall tacticity for one series of samples prepared by bulk polymerization at temperatures varying from ,50,°C to 70,°C, and one series of samples prepared by polarity-based fractionation of a commercial polymer. Using this approach, the stereochemical composition of the samples could be identified. The results are of interest to understand the changes in the physical properties as shown in earlier and current work for both series of polymers. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry [source] The evolving experience of illness for Chinese women with breast cancer: A qualitative studyPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 2 2003Wendy W.T. Lam The study of illness meaning in cancer in western communities has usually focused on causal attributions. We report a phenomenological study of 17 Hong Kong Chinese women with breast cancer, interviewed on completion of initial treatment, and describe how the illness experience and hence, meaning evolves for women in the Hong Kong Chinese culture. Themes arising from the identification and treatment of the disease include the difficulty of living in uncertainty and of maintaining and regaining normalcy in a superstitious society. The initial uncertainty of disease detection and the diagnostic process are characterized by shock and disbelief mingled with fear of death. Treatment choice presents women with difficulties arising from more uncertainty over the pressure to make quick decisions and the dilemma of death or mutilation. Following treatment, re-evaluation, re-prioritizing and positive life-re-evaluation occur. Changes in appearance proved problematic for those women who tried to hide their disease to protect themselves against stigmatization and social exclusion. In many ways, these findings parallel studies on western populations, suggesting that a common disease,medical care process is a predominant influence in shaping breast cancer experience. Implications for care are drawn from these data. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Urine flowing: A phenomenological study of living with a urinary catheter,RESEARCH IN NURSING & HEALTH, Issue 1 2002Mary H. Wilde Abstract The experience of living with a long-term urinary catheter was investigated with a community-dwelling sample of 14 adults ranging in age from 35 to 95 who had worn a catheter for 6 months to 18 years. Data were obtained by audiotaped face-to-face interviews. Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and van Manen's methodology guided the study. Living with a urinary catheter was found to be like living with the forces of flowing water. People were keenly aware of the flow of urine through their catheters, and they noticed when their bags needed emptying or when urine drainage seemed sluggish or obstructed. The metaphor of urine flowing like water may provide a teaching heuristic for assisting clients in adjusting to living with a catheter. Implications for further research focus on understanding the relationship between sensitivity to the dynamics of urine flow and urinary tract infection. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Res Nurs Health 25:14,24, 2002. [source] "Do You Have Anything to Add?"ANTHROPOLOGY & HUMANISM, Issue 1 2000Commentary on the Social Experience of Mental Illness, Narrative as Reflection This article argues that a phenomenological study of mental illness constructed from first-person subjective narratives can make a substantial contribution to our understanding of illness in terms of ordinary human experience. I suggest that the social experience of mental illness is primarily one of alienation and that this is both an internal and externally imposed experience. I conclude by proposing that the anthropological perspective,seeing the person within his or her wider cultural context, including both spatial and temporal dimensions,has the potential to generate new insights into how we might mitigate the alienating and depersonalizing effects of the mental illness experience. On another level, this article represents my attempt, as a mother, to come to terms with a mental health crisis within my own family. [source] The jungle of quality of life: Mapping measures and meanings for eldersAUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, Issue 1 2009Penny Hambleton The literature on quality of life (QOL) can be described as a jungle: vast, dense and difficult to penetrate, especially for those entering the field without a specialist QOL background. While QOL as a term is entwined in an extensive body of work from many disciplines and covering diverse perspectives, it has been most extensively documented and operationalised within the domains of health-related socioeconomic drivers and is largely quantitative in nature. Subjective and qualitative measurement is less fully developed and documented. This review paper provides a map through the QOL literature by constructing a tabular framework to position the measures and meanings of QOL prior to undertaking a phenomenological study with older people. It concludes by arguing for attention to the further development of qualitative experiential measures specific to life-stage QOL for older people, having found these perspectives rarely visible. [source] Occupational therapists' perception of their practice: A phenomenological studyAUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009Liv Grethe Kinn Background:,International literature seems consistent in reporting that occupational therapists value their methods. However, little empirical evidence has been generated supporting the basic system of belief for occupational therapy. Few studies have explored the nature of the occupational therapists' experiences and thoughts about their use of occupation as means and ends, and which strategies they use to implement their tools in their current practice. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to explore how occupational therapists understood and presented their practice and interventions. Methods:,A sample of six occupational therapists graduated in different decades, from diverse client populations and health-care settings was selected to participate in a semistructured interview. Results:,Three main themes were developed: ,To make the client's potentials visible', ,reaching a position one values' and ,looking with other eyes'. Whatever their specialities, the participants were unanimous in the way they described their role. Their common focus was ,activities of daily living'. However, they had problems describing their therapeutic tools, and were not able to clearly articulate the ,common sense aspects' of their own methods. The participants were engaged in constructing their professional identities, and stressed the need to construct professional boundaries relevant to their particular work. Conclusion:,The occupational therapists perceived their practice and interventions as distinctly different from other team members, thus, they provided a ,counterpoint'. The participants used various ways of marketing their perspectives. While the novices tended to go along with the team, the experienced therapists tended to assert their own special contribution. 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