Outcome assessment (Medical care)

The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of nurses who care for hospitalized women outside of an addiction treatment setting who have a problem with drugs and/or alcohol. The relational experiences of ten registered nurses who had cared for women with drug and alcohol problems were elicited. Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology was the method used to interpret the nurse participant's meaning of their experience. The theoretical framework that was used to explore the nurses' experience o caring for women who abuse or are dependent on alcohol and/or drugs was Boykin and Schoenhofer's Nursing as Caring (1993). The relational themes that emerged were: Caring in the dark; Intentionally knowing the woman with AOD as a unique person; and Experiencing sisterhood.

This dissertation examines factors with influence on the organizational cultural competence of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems. The purpose of this study was to draw on theories of representative bureaucracy and transformational leadership to assess cultural competence in Emergency Medical Services systems from the perspective of EMS leadership, within careful consideration of the external environment in which EMS systems operate.