Nursing

The decision to flee one’s homeland is a complex event that can have a life-long impact. The diaspora of the Cuban people has occurred throughout the United States since 1959. Their stories can shed light on the health challenge of leaving one’s homeland and can contribute to a body of knowledge that can inform nursing and health care. This study presents the qualitative findings from the stories of 13 participants who arrived in the U.S. from Cuba during the Mariel Boatlift of 1980. A story inquiry research design, grounded in the theoretical underpinnings of story theory (Smith & Liehr, 2014), was utilized to explore the dimensions of the health challenge of fleeing one’s homeland, turning points and movement to resolve. Deductive and inductive analysis of the health challenge of fleeing one’s homeland revealed the dimensions of trauma related to the pre-migration, migration, and post migration experience, associated losses, and stigma. The upheaval induced stress in the lives of the participants tested their ability to cope. Managing day-to-day and utilizing internal and external resources, the participants moved to resolve the challenge of fleeing their homeland over time. Many turning points shaped the direction of their experience over decades and contributed to their ability to find meaning by becoming self-sufficient, recreating home, and reconstructing a sense of self-identity. Their unique experiences and stories have provided a voice to empower future studies to expand nursing science, influence empathy and understanding through education, foster awareness in practice, and inspire the potential for policy change for the well-being of refugee populations.

Moral comfort, an emerging concept in nursing, is defined as an individual’s feelings of ease with decisions and actions related to a moral dilemma. Moral comfort for nurses is the positive outcome of a moral situation or dilemma, while moral distress, a widely explored issue in nursing, is the negative outcome. However, nursing literature on the concept of moral comfort is limited. While several instruments to measure moral distress exist, an instrument to measure moral comfort was not found. The Moral Comfort Questionnaire (MCQ) was theoretically developed. The purpose of this study was psychometric evaluation of this new 35-item instrument.
Direct-care hospital-based registered nurses (n = 466) participated from February
2019 to September 2019 in this IRB-approved study. Participants completed demographic information, the MCQ, and the Moral Distress Scale revised (MDSR). Psychometric evaluation included a priori content validation and multiple statistical analyses: Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, weighted kappa, Bland- Altman analysis (B&A), discriminant validity, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Phenomenologic inquiry was used to answer the research question, "What is the lived experience of sexuality for the postmenopausal woman?" Three dimensions of the experience of sexuality were uncovered in the interviewing process. The first dimension was adjusting to postmenopausal puberty. This referred to the physical and emotional adjustment each participant went through while coming to accept and adjust to hormone related changes in their bodies. The second dimension was self perception as related to being and becoming through menopause. This referred to the personal growth that took place in each participant as she navigated through the menopause experience. The final dimension uncovered was changing patterns of sexual intimacy. The frequency of sexual encounters decreased for participants following menopause however, participants found new ways of coping and meeting their needs for sexual intimacy.

Adolescents are experimenting with body art such as tattoos and body piercing, despite documented medical risks. Nurses are in a key position to formulate appropriate educational and counseling strategies to minimize the complications associated with these practices. Low self esteem has been linked to poor health behaviors and harmful life style choices in adolescents. The purpose of this study was to determine how self esteem differed between adolescents engaging in body art and those who do not. A non experimental, descriptive research design utilizing the Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory was used to evaluate self esteem in a group of 53 tattooed/body pierced, and 53 non-tattooed/body pierced high school students. Results indicated that a significantly lower self esteem was characteristic of the body art group.

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of intuition as experienced by first-time mothers. A phenomenological approach employing van Manen's research method was utilized. Six participants described their experiences of being first-time mothers. Seven essential themes emerged: Naturalness, Knowing, Connection, Value, Delivering Comfort, Structure, and Transformation. These themes describe the lived experience as the essence of Naturalness to facilitate Knowing the Connection to one's infant is Valuing intuition in Delivering Comfort that is without Structure and involves self Transformation. The unity of meaning discovered from the data is stated as: The Illumination of Intuition to First-Time Mothers and Experiencing the Presence of Other. The results of this study suggest that the recognition of intuition to first-time mothers is significant to nursing and nursing practice.

The purpose of this nursing research study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of families receiving nursing care in the home. The question guiding the study was: What is the meaning (for families) of the experience of receiving nursing care in the home? Using van Manen's phenomenological approach, six families described their experience of receiving nursing care in their homes during taped conversational interviews. Following hermeneutical thematic analysis of the transcribed texts, one common metatheme emerged: Home Nursing Care Experienced within the Gestalt of Home Health Care. Four associated sub-themes emerged: (1) Being in Relationship with the Nurse; (2) Feeling Decreased Stress/Increased Comfort; (3) Having the Nurse as Family Advocate/Mediator; and (4) Finding the Way Through Chaos to Control.

This research explored a nurse's experience of creating visual art with patients in clinical settings. The question guiding the study was: What is the experience of creating visual art for a nurse? The aim of this descriptive study was to discover what is the nature of the experience of creating visual art as an aspect of nursing care from a nurse's perspective. Using van Manen's phenomenological approach, a description of the experience of creating visual art with patients occurred. Five essential themes emerged and express this experience. The unity of meaning for the experience is portrayed as A Healing Portrait of the Soul's Journey in Compassionate, Cocreative Relationships of Openness, Human Connectedness and Transformation. Implications for nursing inquiry, practice, and education are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience for the Haitian mother of having a child hospitalized. A qualitative study from a phenomenological perspective was undertaken. Seven respondents were interviewed. Significant statements from the transcribed interviews were analyzed according to Giorgi's (1988) method of reduction, extraction, analysis, and synthesis. A general description of the meaningful experience was obtained which includes themes relating to the hospital experience. The six themes which emerged are: (a) uncertainty, search for meaning, God's help; (b) need to be with child; (c) identification with child's pain and anxiety; (d) being in the hospital environment; (e) dealing with information; and, (f) best care for child. These themes and nursing implications are discussed.