Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Relational-Cultural Perspectives Of African American Women With Diabetes And Maintaining Multiple Roles, Ayesha Ali

Doctoral Dissertations

The growth of diabetes in the United States is viewed by some as epidemic with a particular concern as related to African American women. African American women experience diabetes disproportionately to other groups with higher risks of complications and premature death. Historically, they have led all women in labor force participation and maintained roles within and outside the home. The purpose of this study was to gain understanding and meaning of the lived experience of African American women with diabetes and maintaining multiple roles using sensitizing concepts of Relational-Cultural theory. Relational-Cultural theory was described as related to use with women …

Rural Appalachian Person And Family Decision Making At End Of Life, Mary Lou Clark Fornehed

Doctoral Dissertations

The dynamics of delivering care to persons at end of life (EOL) have dramatically changed in the last twenty years. Improved management of chronic illness and provision of aggressive life sustaining measures for an illness once deemed fatal are more common, significantly increasing longevity. While it is estimated that more than 40 million persons with life-limiting illness worldwide are candidates for some form of palliative or end-of-life care (EOLC), less than 14% of them will receive it.

When coping with life-limiting illness, people and their families are asked to make many complex and difficult decisions about EOL, palliative, or hospice …

A Grounded Theory Inquiry Into Crying In Women Dealing With The Emotional Stress Of Personal Crisis, Mary Bess Griffith

Doctoral Dissertations

The belief that crying leads to healing is so widely held and of such longstanding that many healthcare professionals—including nurses, physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists—accept it as fact even though there is little substantiating scientific evidence. Crying is commonly believed to be an essential factor in restoring mind-body equilibrium after physical and/or emotional trauma has been experienced. If, as has been hypothesized by many scientists and healthcare practitioners, emotional crying is a biopsychosocial healing modality, then specifics of its therapeutic praxis, including limitations and ambiguities, should be incorporated into nursing education and practice. In this grounded theory study, the meaning and …

Cancer Pain Processes In The Hospice Caring Triad: A Grounded Theory Study, Olga Ehrlich

Doctoral Dissertations

The author conducted this constructivist grounded theory study to describe perceptions, behaviors, and communication that hospice caring triads engage in while managing cancer pain, specifically how these social processes can be assessed and used to improve poorly-controlled pain. Three hospice caring triads comprised of patients, family caregivers, and nurses along with one nurse-patient dyad, were recruited into this longitudinal qualitative study. Each group was observed during nursing visits. Triad and dyad members were individually interviewed. Nurses participated in a focus group and survey. The author used constant comparative methods of data analysis, including line-by-line gerund coding, theoretical codes from cancer …