Women--Substance use

Women in recovery from chemical dependence represent a unique culture that should be viewed through a transcultural lens in order to facilitate and sustain their recovery in the dominant culture community. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions and experiences of women in recovery from chemical dependence and their return to the community. Leininger's ethnonursing method was used to obtain a holistic transcultural view of the beliefs, values and lifeways of twelve women in recovery. A communal moral focus was used to understand patterns of meaning, values, virtues and principles using Ray's Transcultural Nursing Ethics. Critical Social Theory was used as an overarching framework to critically analyze the lifeworld (community life of women in recovery) and the system (sociopolitical structures) to enhance the community nurse's knowledge about the needs of women to facilitate their return to community. Four themes included the following: understanding the lifeworld of chemical dependence was a symbol for facilitating the recovery process, restoring a sense of well being contributed to the meaning of a successful recovery, resituating in the community was demonstrated by actions of recreating new lifeways, and sustaining recovery by relying on the community as a source for supporting new lifeways. A critical analysis of the themes revealed paradoxical experiences of women in the dominant culture community. A synthesis of the findings from the lifeworld and analysis of the themes resulted in the co-creation of The Clarity-Parity Community Nursing Practice Framework. The framework demonstrates how the moral caring actions of the community nurse and the mutual moral caring actions of the community nurse, women in recovery and dominant culture community can result in increasing the clarity of transcultural communication and encouraging a position of parity for women in recovery within the dominant culture community.