AIDS is a chronic disease that seriously affects health, emotions, social relations and household economy. People living with HIV/AIDS experience great suffering, stigmatisation and discrimination from other people around them because they know that it is incurable, contagious, evokes social disgust and is a complex disease requiring life-long self-care. This researcher explored ways people with HIV/AIDS take care of their health and manage their lives in the context of stigma and discrimination. A grounded theory study was conducted with 30 participants with HIV/AIDS, in Mahasarakham Province, Thailand. Participants were recruited from an HIV/AIDS day care clinic and by snowball sampling. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, participant observations and field notes made during home visits. Interviews were tape recorded, then transcribed verbatim. “From experiencing social disgust to passing as normal” was generated inductively from the data as the basic social psychological process of Thai people living with HIV/AIDS. From experiencing social disgust to passing as normal comprised four categories: being HIV/AIDS, making choices, keeping well and feeling empowered. The category “being HIV/AIDS”- discovering the meaning of having HIV/AIDS, comprises four concepts: being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, being stigmatised, suffering, and learning about HIV/AIDS. The category “making choices”- to live a normal life, involves three concepts: avoiding unhappy situations, getting remarried and seeking support. The category “keeping well”- maintaining emotional and physical health, includes eight concepts: religious practices, keeping a cheerful mind, self-treatment, taking care of the body, keeping the environment clean to prevent getting germs, healthy behaviours, getting healthcare services, and attention to, and concern about, medication. The last category “feeling empowered”- personal and social acceptance of illness, includes eight concepts: being encouraged, acknowledging the disease, social acceptance, tamjai, feeling proud of self, feeling good about life, feeling lucky and having hope. In the context of northeastern Thailand, successful management of HIV/AIDS was underpinned by participants making a transition from “experiencing social disgust” to “passing as normal” within their communities. The desire to live a normal life despite having HIV/AIDS motivated participants to undertake effective self-care in order to remain symptom free (thus avoiding visible signs of the disease), and to selectively disclose their illness to avoid the ongoing risk of stigma and discrimination. The findings of this study are useful in that they will provide Thai health professionals with a clearer conceptualisation of self-care among the Thai population. An inductively derived theory of self-care among Thai with HIV/AIDS can be applied and integrated by health professionals into the self-care models for people living with HIV/AIDS including models used in nursing education, research and practice.

AIDS is a chronic disease that seriously affects health, emotions, social relations and household economy. People living with HIV/AIDS experience great suffering, stigmatisation and discrimination from other people around them because they know that it is incurable, contagious, evokes social disgust and is a complex disease requiring life-long self-care. This researcher explored ways people with HIV/AIDS take care of their health and manage their lives in the context of stigma and discrimination. A grounded theory study was conducted with 30 participants with HIV/AIDS, in Mahasarakham Province, Thailand. Participants were recruited from an HIV/AIDS day care clinic and by snowball sampling. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, participant observations and field notes made during home visits. Interviews were tape recorded, then transcribed verbatim. “From experiencing social disgust to passing as normal” was generated inductively from the data as the basic social psychological process of Thai people living with HIV/AIDS. From experiencing social disgust to passing as normal comprised four categories: being HIV/AIDS, making choices, keeping well and feeling empowered. The category “being HIV/AIDS”- discovering the meaning of having HIV/AIDS, comprises four concepts: being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, being stigmatised, suffering, and learning about HIV/AIDS. The category “making choices”- to live a normal life, involves three concepts: avoiding unhappy situations, getting remarried and seeking support. The category “keeping well”- maintaining emotional and physical health, includes eight concepts: religious practices, keeping a cheerful mind, self-treatment, taking care of the body, keeping the environment clean to prevent getting germs, healthy behaviours, getting healthcare services, and attention to, and concern about, medication. The last category “feeling empowered”- personal and social acceptance of illness, includes eight concepts: being encouraged, acknowledging the disease, social acceptance, tamjai, feeling proud of self, feeling good about life, feeling lucky and having hope. In the context of northeastern Thailand, successful management of HIV/AIDS was underpinned by participants making a transition from “experiencing social disgust” to “passing as normal” within their communities. The desire to live a normal life despite having HIV/AIDS motivated participants to undertake effective self-care in order to remain symptom free (thus avoiding visible signs of the disease), and to selectively disclose their illness to avoid the ongoing risk of stigma and discrimination. The findings of this study are useful in that they will provide Thai health professionals with a clearer conceptualisation of self-care among the Thai population. An inductively derived theory of self-care among Thai with HIV/AIDS can be applied and integrated by health professionals into the self-care models for people living with HIV/AIDS including models used in nursing education, research and practice.

Page 251 is missing from original but content appears complete. / Beginning with the question, "what are the forces and voices influencing the meaning of the concept, and the development of advanced nursing practice in New Zealand in the 1990s”, this thesis uses an historical sociological approach to explore what New Zealand nursing is becoming and what it is ceasing to be. Through the examination of New Zealand nursing history from 1860 through the first years of the 21st century, seven historical understandings of the meaning of 'advanced' nursing practice emerged: nurses with higher education; nurses with more than one type of registration; community nurses; nurse educators and administrators; specialty nursing; a career hierarchy based on further education, experience and clinical focus; and the contemporary Nurse Practitioner. The thesis argues that each of the earlier historical connotations of advanced nursing practice is reflected in the Nurse Practitioner. The analysis of this broad scope of New Zealand nursing history, including a case study of the interpretation and implementation of contemporary advanced nursing practice, reveals essential themes of profession and professionalisation; politics and political sophistication. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from sociology, political science, and nursing, these concepts are further analysed, and developed into a representational framework. This conceptualisation depicts critical factors for nursing to achieve its preferred position in the context of time. Therefore, this study is also an exploration of New Zealand nursing's professional project A professional project is the process through which an occupational group gains control over the education and entry to practice of practitioners; secures legitimacy through the state and the public; achieves self-regulation over its practice; and secures, maintains and extends a market, or jurisdiction for itself. This thesis illustrates that while the course of action of a professional project is not always clear or deliberate for all the members of the profession, it nevertheless has a coherence that may be seen ex post facto. It is argued that what became the drive for the development of New Zealand's Nurse Practitioner and the expansion of nursing's jurisdiction at the turn of the 21st century, began long before the 1990s. The importance of history to understanding the past, the relevance of history to the shape of the present, and the significance of history's influence on the future are affirmed.

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As the baby boomer generation move inexorably towards retirement and the requirement for health care services increases, the supply of nurses available to provide care at the patient bedside is forecast to fall significantly short of demand. This thesis has explored the perspectives of midlife nurses, asking what it would take to keep them in bedside practice until retirement. These nurses have provided insights which offer employers of valuable senior nurses, suggestions for maximising their potential. Through the use of questionnaires and focus groups nurses aged 45 years and over were asked what the employer can do to ensure that they are able to continue to work at the patient bedside until they reach the age of retirement. The results of this research demonstrate a workforce of nurses who are passionate and committed to their profession, but feeling disillusioned and disempowered. The nursing environment has changed over the span of their career and they find the increased workload, together with increasing professional demands, too hard to cope with. They feel they have no control over their workload, their shift patterns, or the expectations of their patients and colleagues. They want their experience to be recognized but they do not want to have to prove competency; they want to have a voice but they are unwilling to pursue postgraduate education to learn how to become visible and emancipated.

As the baby boomer generation move inexorably towards retirement and the requirement for health care services increases, the supply of nurses available to provide care at the patient bedside is forecast to fall significantly short of demand. This thesis has explored the perspectives of midlife nurses, asking what it would take to keep them in bedside practice until retirement. These nurses have provided insights which offer employers of valuable senior nurses, suggestions for maximising their potential. Through the use of questionnaires and focus groups nurses aged 45 years and over were asked what the employer can do to ensure that they are able to continue to work at the patient bedside until they reach the age of retirement. The results of this research demonstrate a workforce of nurses who are passionate and committed to their profession, but feeling disillusioned and disempowered. The nursing environment has changed over the span of their career and they find the increased workload, together with increasing professional demands, too hard to cope with. They feel they have no control over their workload, their shift patterns, or the expectations of their patients and colleagues. They want their experience to be recognized but they do not want to have to prove competency; they want to have a voice but they are unwilling to pursue postgraduate education to learn how to become visible and emancipated.