This qualitative study examined retrospective client accounts of hindering experiences that occurred during therapy. In order to explore in-depth and descriptive information about client experiences of hindering events, a structured thematic analysis methodology was used that resulted in conceptual ordering (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Data collection was conducted through face-to-face semi-structured interviews of 9 participants who had previously experienced a hindering event. Structured thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to distill themes from the collected data, where four major themes emerged from the data that were relevant to the research questions of the present study: 1) Identified Hindering Events, 2) Subjective Experience of the Event, 3) Response to the Event, 4) Handling/ Addressing the Event. Results from this study contribute to further understanding of client experiences of hindering events that occur in therapy. Implications for therapeutic organizations, therapists/ counsellors, and educators are discussed.

abstract: When consumers make experiential purchases, they often have to decide between experiences that contain many or few features. Contrary to prior research demonstrating that consumers prefer feature-rich products before consumption but feature-poor products after consumption, the author reveals a reversal of this effect for experiences. Specifically, the author hypothesizes and finds that consumers prefer feature-poor experiences before consumption (a phenomenon denoted as `feature apprehension') but prefer feature-rich experiences after consumption. This feature apprehension occurs before consumption because consumers are concerned with the uncertainty associated with attaining a satisfying outcome from the experience. Manipulating the temporal distance with which consumers view the experience can attenuate this effect. Additionally, locus of control and social signaling moderate consumers' post-consumption preference for feature-rich experiences. The author proposes several recommendations for consumers and providers of experiences. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2015

The intention of this study is to examine experiences of growing up in single-parent families. With in-depth interviews with six young grown ups we learned about their childhood and perspective of growing up in this kind of families. We analysed their life-stories together with theories about identity and the effect of modern society on individuals from a sociological point of view. Departing from symbolic interactionism and previous research which shows that people who grow up in this type of families often have a difficult childhood and adulthood we analysed the empirical material. The result shows that most people in this type of families experience a good and safe childhood with a close-knit family. However, during some certain periods and situations some have not felt completely satisfied, due to lack of experienced attention and support from their parent. Almost all respondents have been partially responsible for the household and have also felt big emotional responsibility for their parent. Although, the vast majority of informants does not consider themselves or their upbringing much different from others and none of the respondents has expressed a wish for another type of family.

Bakgrund: Det finns ungefär 25000 stomiopererade personer i Sverige. Stomi innebär att tarmens naturliga tömningsväg ändras genom en kirurgisk anläggning av öppning på buken. Det finns olika typer av stomi och orsaken till stomibildning är oftast inflammatoriska tarmsjukdomar eller cancer. Syfte: Att beskriva vuxna personers upplevelser av att leva med stomi samt att beskriva vilka datainsamlingsmetoder som har använts i de utvalda artiklarna. Metod: En beskrivande litteraturstudie som byggt på 14 vetenskapliga artiklar, varav tretton med kvalitativ ansats och en med kvantitativ ansats. Huvudresultat: Resultatet av föreliggande studie visar att personers liv förändrades genomgripande på grund av stomi. Patientutbildning och information samt sjuksköterskans bemötande och kompetens kring området behöver förbättras. Många kämpade för att återställa ett normalt liv trots stomi. Utifrån den metodologiska frågeställningen framkom att de studierna med kvalitativ ansasts hade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod och den kvantitativa studien samlade in data via enkät. Slutsats: Stomibildning innebär en genomgripande livsförändring för personer då alla aspekter av livet påverkas. Trots stomi kämpade många för att återställa ett normalt liv. Patientutbildning och information samt sjuksköterskansarbete behöver förbättras. Föreliggande studie ger en djupare förståelse för personer som har stomi och kunskapen kan gynna sjuksköterskans arbete och därmed höja vårdkvaliteten. / Background: There are about 25,000 ostomy-operated people in Sweden. An ostomy is a surgically created opening on the abdomen for the discharge of body wastes. There are different types of ostomies and the cause of ostomy formation is usually inflammatory bowel disease or cancer. Purpose: To describe adults’ experiences of living with an ostomy and to describe which data collection methods have been used in the selected articles. Method: A descriptive literature study based on 14 scientific articles, of which thirteen articles have qualitative approach and one article has quantitative approach. Main result: The result of the present study shows that the people’s lives have changed profoundly due to ostomy. Many struggled to restore a normal life despite ostomy. Patient education and information as well as nurses’ attitude and knowledge need to be improved. Based on the methodological question, it was found that the studies with qualitative approach had interviews as data collection methods and the quantitative study collected data by using questionnaire. Conclusion: Ostomy formation means a profound change of life for people when all aspects of life are affected. Many struggled to restore a normal life. Patient education and information and nurses work need to be improved. The present study provides a deeper understanding of people who have ostomy and the knowledge can benefit nurses’ work and thus raise the quality of care.

In Canada, nursing education and practice are enacted in the context of a white settler nation-state. As part of their mandates, nursing schools uphold concepts such as multiculturalism, equity, and diversity; however, studies in North America reflect that the reality contradicts these directives and suggest that nursing schools are hegemonic white spaces. This study challenges this white hegemony through the gaze of racialized nurses. Through in-depth interviews, ten self-identified racialized nurses shared narratives looking back at their experiences in nursing school, and their accounts indicate how they faced the complexities of learning within environments where systemic racism is enacted. Using a women of colour feminist approach, this study asked the following question: What are the experiences of racialized nurses in nursing education programs in Canada? Intersectional analysis was used to examine and address the multiplicity of experiences that emerged from the interviews. Racialized nurses’ narratives reveal complex experiences with the following prevailing themes: Othering, the white gaze, navigating white spaces, accent as marker, always proving myself, and racism impacting health. Beyond racism, participants’ experiences were also affected by the intersection with other markers of difference while in nursing school, such as gender, religion, class, and age. Participants identified that they were seen through a white gaze while in nursing school and engaged with this study as an opportunity to challenge and resist the systemic structures of racism they encountered. The findings point to the reality that nursing schools are permeated by systemic structures of white privilege and racism, due to a legacy of colonialism and imperialism, and those structures have a severe impact on racialized students. Furthermore, this study indicates the need for critical evaluations of nursing schools, and to challenge the enactment and maintenance of racist practices of exclusion and marginalization of racialized students. / Graduate / 2019-04-19

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a heterogeneous disorder associated with functional impairment and deleterious effects at the family level. Caregivers are often enmeshed in the disorder, coping with the child’s OCD-related distress and engaging in accommodating behaviors. Given the developmental level of these youth and the impactful nature of OCD, caregivers may experience considerable burden and decreased quality of life (QoL). However, extant literature on these constructs is largely limited to caregivers of patients with chronic illnesses, and the few existing studies examining OCD samples are limited to adult patients. As such, this study sought to examine burden and QoL in caregivers of youth enrolled in an intensive outpatient or partial hospitalization program for their severe OCD. Specifically, the relationships between caregiver QoL and burden and the following variables were investigated: OCD symptom severity, functioning (youth functional impairment, general family functioning), family (family accommodation, parental relationship satisfaction, positive aspects of caregiving), and comorbid psychopathology (caregiver anxiety and depressive symptoms, youth internalizing and externalizing behaviors). Seventy-two child and caregiver dyads participated in the study and completed a battery of clinician- and self-rated questionnaires. Different components of caregiver QoL correlated with caregiver-rated functional impairment, family accommodation, youth externalizing behaviors, and caregiver psychopathology. Various aspects of caregiver burden correlated with OCD symptom severity, functional impairment related to OCD, as well as caregiver and child comorbid psychopathology. Caregiver depressive symptoms predicted caregiver QoL, and caregiver depressive symptoms and child externalizing symptoms both predicted caregiver burden. Caregiver burden did not mediate the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptom severity and caregiver QoL. Ultimately, elucidating factors associated with increased caregiver burden and poorer QoL are pertinent for the identification of at-risk families and development of targeted interventions.

This thesis is concerned with an exploration of counsellors’ and clients’ lived experiences of Buddhist Counselling, an indigenous Buddhist-based counselling approach in Thailand. Over the past decade, Buddhist Counselling has received a growing interest from Thai counselling trainees and practitioners, and it has also expanded to serve Thai people in various settings. Research on Buddhist Counselling is very limited and most of the existing studies in the field have focused on measuring the effectiveness of the approach. While these studies have consistently indicated the positive effects of Buddhist Counselling on psychological improvement across several population groups, the significant questions of how Buddhist Counselling brings about such outcome and how it is experienced are still largely unanswered. Moreover, existing research is concentrated much more on clients’ views than counsellors’ views, although counsellors’ views of their counselling practice can also serve as a knowledge base of the field. This thesis thus sets out to contribute to rectifying this omission by exploring Buddhist Counselling from the perspectives of both counsellors and clients. The thesis is based on two qualitative studies. The first study addressed Buddhist Counselling from the perspective of five counsellors through a focus group and semi-structured interviews. The second study explored Buddhist Counselling from the perspective of three clients, using two semi-structured interviews with each of them. All data received were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The study reveals counsellors’ and clients’ overall positive experience of engaging in Buddhist Counselling. Central to the accounts of the counsellors are the following perceptions: that their practice of Buddhist Counselling is culturally congruent with the existing values and beliefs of both themselves and their clients; that their personal and professional congruence is key to their therapeutic efficacy; and that they enhance such congruence through their application of Buddhist ideas and practices in their daily lives. Key to the clients’ accounts is their emphasis on the significant roles of the counsellors’ Buddhist ideas and personal qualities, and of their religious practices in facilitating healing and change. Key shared findings from both studies reveal that the participants’ accounts of their cultural background and their experiences of Buddhist Counselling are intertwined. Adopting hermeneutics to address this intertwinement, I reveal the cultural and moral dimensions underlying the practice of Buddhist Counselling. Based on such revelation, I suggest that Buddhist Counselling in particular, as well as psychotherapy in general, should be better understood as a historically situated, culturally bound, and morally constituted activity of people who are concerned with improving the quality of their lives and their community, rather than the transcultural and merely relational work of morally-neutral practitioners.

The South African Constitution (South Africa, 1996) states that access to healthcare services is a basic human right. The Patients’ Rights Charter (HPCSA, 2008: 6) stipulates that the provision for “special needs in the case of persons living with HIV or AIDS” and palliative care be “affordable and effective”. The need for palliative care in South Africa today continues to increase. Khan and Sayed 2011[2]) found that five years after commencement of anti-retrovirals, twenty five percent of their patients had passed away. This study was performed in the Eastern Cape which is one of the poorest provinces with the second highest HIV prevalence rate. Since 2008, Sophumelela Centre Incorporated has offered palliative care for HIV and AIDS patients in Buffalo City. Some of these patients and their families were interviewed about their experiences in this care centre. The South African Constitution (South Africa, 1996) states that access to healthcare services is a basic human right. The Patients’ Rights Charter (HPCSA, 2008: 6) stipulates that the provision for “special needs in the case of persons living with HIV or AIDS” and palliative care be “affordable and effective”. The need for palliative care in South Africa today continues to increase. Khan and Sayed (2011[2]) found that five years after commencement of anti-retrovirals, twenty five percent of their patients had passed away. This study was performed in the Eastern Cape which is one of the poorest provinces with the second highest HIV prevalence rate. Since 2008, Sophumelela Centre Incorporated has offered palliative care for HIV and AIDS patients in Buffalo City. Some of these patients and their families were interviewed about their experiences in this care centre.

Detta är en litteraturbaserad studie som belyser ungdomars upplevelser av att leva med en ADHD-diagnos, samt vilken påverkan diagnosen har för den enskilde individen och samhället i stort. Många svårigheter i vardagen framkommer, så även brister i kunskap, bemötande och samverkan från sjukvårdens sida.  ADHD är en neuropsykiatrisk funktionsnedsättning som karaktäriseras av brister i uppmärksamhet, impulskontroll och reglering av aktivitetsnivå. ADHD hos ungdomar är associerat med risker som exempelvis utvecklandet av psykiatriska samsjukliga tillstånd, drogproblem och kriminellt leverne. Ungdomar med ADHD beskrivs vara känsliga för negativ miljöpåverkan och beteenden relaterade till diagnosen påvisas kunna leda till stigmatisering och diskriminering. Trots att behandling för ADHD i många fall leder till en bättre funktion för individerna är behandlingsföljsamheten låg. Det framkommer att många väljer att avsluta sin sjukvårdskontakt och behandling, specifikt i övergångsåldern mellan ungdom till vuxen. Resultatet lyfter att ADHD i många fall leder till stora svårigheter i vardagen och ungdomarna rapporterar ett stort omvårdnadsbehov. Brister i delgivning av information framkommer vid kontakten med sjukvården. Så även brister i upplevelser av behandling samt bemötande. För att kunna främja hälsa ur ett holistiskt synsätt, krävs bättre samverkan mellan de olika aktörer i samhället som är i kontakt med denna patientgrupp. Sjuksköterskan möter individer med ADHD inom både den somatiska och psykiatriska delen av vården. Hanteringen av diagnosens yttranden hos patienterna ställer i många fall högra krav på kompetensen hos sjuksköterskan. Sjuksköterskor inom både den somatiska och psykiatriska delen av vården behöver mer kunskap om ADHD och diagnosens yttranden för att kunna tillhandahålla personcentrerad vård med ett gott bemötande till patientgruppen. / Background: ADHD is a neuropsychiatric disorder which characteristics has been proven to cause many difficulties in the everyday life, both from an individual perspective and in society as a whole. The diagnosis is associated with high mortality, drug use, deviance behaviour, criminality and the individuals who's been diagnosed and treated often experiences stigmatization. The health care and especially the nurse plays a big role in the management and caring for these patients. The core essence of nursing is to promote health through a holistic approach and relieve the suffering which these patients experience. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how adolescents and young adults with ADHD experiences their everyday life, and how the diagnose influence their psychosocial function. Method: This study is formed as a literature review based on ten scientifical articles, which was conducted through a systematic literature search. The articles were examined and sorted based on similarities in their result sections. Results: The experiences of ADHD in everyday life and psychosocial functioning were charactered by behaviour issues which led to limitations in social interactions, academic performances, home environment and experiences of stigmatization. Regarding the meeting with health care professionals, youths reported lack of individualistic approach, personcentered care and information. Conclusion: Adolescents and young adults with ADHD experiences a lot of malfunctioning in their everyday life, both due to their diagnosis and the consequences which it leds to. Health care professionals needs more knowledge about the disorder to present good care and to promote health.

Background: When a family encounters the problem of adolescent substance misuse, the burden of managing it often falls primarily on the mother. Objective and methods: This research was conducted in two phases to explore the experiences of mothers of adolescents who misuse substances. Phase one was a systematic qualitative evidence synthesis of qualitative studies on the experiences of mothers of adolescents who misused substances. In this phase, conventional content analysis was used to create a narrative synthesis of themes and categories. Phase two was a qualitative study using thematic analysis to describe mothers’ experiences of parenting an adolescent who misused drugs. Findings: Eleven qualitative studies were included in the literature review. New categories regarding mothers’ experiences emerged from the review and synthesis: 1) I love you and we can talk no matter what; 2) So this is really happening . . . My kid’s on drugs; 3) What have I done?; 4) My family is shattered: a) I can’t believe what you’re doing, b) I can’t face this, c) I’ve lost my baby; and 5) It’s not my addiction. Four mothers were interviewed for the qualitative study. Mothers described their realities and the challenges they faced parenting an adolescent who misused drugs. Their experiences were represented in the following categories:1) recognition, 2) punishment/surveillance, 3) negative emotions, 4) relationships, 5) escalating effects, 6) strategies, and 7) home–a safe place. Conclusions: The findings from this research contribute to our understanding of the everyday lives and struggles that mothers face with their adolescents’ substances misuse. Nurses, by implementing early targeted interventions, will meet the needs of these mothers and assist themselves and ultimately their adolescents to attain optimal wellbeing.