Communication in all its various forms has one common goal: expressing and deciphering ideas. Education in recent years has taken a move towards more global approaches to learning/teaching. Within this context, more innovative and inclusive methods of communication need to be created. This study investigated the meaning-form connections in a modern dance experiment. Based on a poem, a dance was created and then performed for various audiences. Responses were recorded through survey and focus group interviews; and analyzed based on grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Charmaz, 2006). GT analysis coupled with hermeneutic constructivism offered an instructive and inclusive means of looking at the data. The results of the analysis along with inductive reasoning led to the result of six categories through which modern dance produces meaning and audiences decipher meaning from modern dance: Conflict Resolution, Personal Experience/Trait, Linguistic Structures, Abstract Concepts, Compatibility, and Technical Ability. The last stage of the study looked at a constructivist communication model “ecology of meanings model”, utilized its basic concept to build a communication for modern dance, and configured the newly found categories within it. My aim in this thesis project is to shed light on the manner in which a non-verbal means of communication, namely dance, is used to convey a message. The end result is a prototype of a possible communication model for modern dance which could afford choreographers/dancers/dance educators/dance spectators the ability to understand not only what modern dance means but also how. By illuminating this process, I hope that dance and communication experts will be able to enhance their educational procedures.

The purpose of this study was to develop an inductive theory describing the process that hospice nurses use to identify and respond to their patients' suffering. Additionally, the study sought to describe the coping strategies that hospice nurses used when working with patients they considered to be suffering. By examining nurses' responses to suffering, this study is the first step in developing effective interventions to alleviate patient suffering and mitigate its consequences on the nurses caring for those patients. Additionally, by knowing the different strategies that nurses use to cope when working with suffering patients, nurse administrators could institute educational programs, build supportive environments, and develop policies to support nurses as they deal with these difficult clinical situations. This is especially important in a hospice environment where the registered nurse is the focal point for ensuring ongoing patient assessment and implementation of the interdisciplinary plan of care by the various team members. Charmaz (2006) description of grounded theory methodology guided the study design and analysis. Participants identified and responded to their patients' suffering within the context of the nurse-patient relationship. Phases of the relationship included: preparation, establishment, cultivation, maintenance, and letting go. The participants gained insight into the psychosocial and existential aspects of the patient's psyches by cultivating the nurse-patient relationship. Within this relational context, the participants used a four-phase process: observation, issue assessment, suffering, and intervention to respond to their patient's suffering. In addition to pain and other signs of physical suffering, the participants identified other aspects of suffering: role losses, the patient's fear of the impending death, the patient's aloneness, and the patient's feelings of guilt or regret. Interestingly, suffering also was considered a family affair and could involve the loss of self-identity. While the participants recognized the importance of self-care, often they had difficulty naming strategies used to respond and cope with their patients' suffering. Clinical supervision and emotional support through mentoring and practical guidance need to be further developed to help nurses cope with the complexity of feelings that arise when caring for dying people. / text

The phenomena of men and depression is poorly understood. Men continue to be under diagnosed with depression but commit suicide four times the rate of women. This grounded theory study explored the psychosocial processes that occurred in men who suffered from depression. There were a total of nine men who participated in this study who ranged in age, educational level, and marital status. Eleven interviews were conducted with nine men.The theory that emerged from this study was Navigating Inward and Outward Through Depression. The process of navigating was the core concept and defined as a process of moving through depression and having to steer one's life in different directions in order to move in and out of the stages of depression. The first stage was: Being Different. In this stage the men attempted to share their feelings, but were constantly rejected by society came to believe that nobody cared or nobody would understand their feelings. The second stage, Concealing Feelings, refers to how the men learned to navigate out of stage one and into stage two of learning to hide their internal feelings and thoughts. The third stage, Disconnecting, was defined as the way the men would numb their emotional pain. As their emotional pain became more intense, the concealing no longer worked. The men used external behaviors to physically numb their pain. The fourth stage, Hitting Bottom, refers to the men losing hope for their future and wanting to give up on life. The men had thoughts of suicide or thoughts that death would be an option to relieve the emotional pain. The fifth stage, Acknowledging and Confronting, refers to the ability to acknowledge they were depressed and understand how depression was affecting their lives.

Postpartum Fatigue is a predominant concern of women after childbirth. Postpartum Fatigue is a pervasive and distressing experience that has negative health-related effects on women, infants, and families. Using grounded theory this study explored the process of postpartum fatigue in 13 women from diverse contexts in the six-week period after childbirth. The human process of Persevering emerged from the data. Persevering explained how participants continued Caregiving in the face of all but the most debilitating Postpartum Fatigue. Caregiving of the infant and older children was the outcome of the Persevering process. The need and ability to persevere emerged out of relationships between Postpartum Fatigue, Self-Transcendence, and Coping Techniques.Persevering is depicted by the model "Persevering through Postpartum Fatigue." The model has five major concepts: Influencing Factors, Postpartum Fatigue, Coping Techniques, Self-Transcendence, and Caregiving. Influencing Factors is a group of factors that participants identified as having the most influence on Postpartum Fatigue across the first six weeks postpartum. The three Influencing Factors were: Maternal-Infant Sleep Pattern Conflict, Infant Characteristics, and Fatigue Limiting Factors.Postpartum Fatigue was characterized by four dimensions: Mental, Physical, Stress-Worry, and Frustration. Each of these dimensions had empirical, context-dependent manifestations. Participants responded to Postpartum Fatigue by using a wide variety of Coping Techniques. Coping Techniques helped women manage Postpartum fatigue. Self-Transcendence was an ongoing human capacity called upon by the women to facilitate perseverance. Through the meaning and purpose ascribed to their infants and children, participants found the strength to persevere in caregiving through all but the most debilitating Postpartum Fatigue.The process of Persevering is explained through the relationships of Postpartum Fatigue, Coping Techniques, and Self-Transcendence. Profound negative feelings and an overwhelming desire to rest and sleep brought on by Postpartum Fatigue were offset by the use of Coping Techniques and Self-Transcendence, which enabled women to persevere in the provision of care to their children. "Persevering through Postpartum Fatigue" contributes a more explanatory view of Postpartum Fatigue as it is expressed in the everyday lives of postpartum women.

This grounded theory driven study explored the predominant categories and concepts involved with perceptions of exercise among school aged children with asthma. Ten children (five males, five females), ages 8-12, with various asthma disease severity, were interviewed in their homes. In addition, nine parents completed a health history questionnaire. The emergent grounded theory: The process of creating perceptions of exercise was identified from the data. The ongoing creation of perceptions of exercise was influenced by four predominant categories: perceived benefits, striving for normalcy, exercise influences, and asthma's influence. Because process is an ongoing occurrence, the four predominant categories may influence the creation of exercise perceptions simultaneously, or at different times and in various ways dependent upon the characteristics of the child and their unique situations and experiences (context). Perceived benefits, striving for normalcy, exercise influences, and asthma's influence were identified categories involved with the interactions, actions, and consequences interwoven throughout the creation of perceptions of exercise process. These categories help explain how exercise perceptions are developed from the participants' perspective. The process of creating perceptions of exercise is a continuous, circular, happening with the consequences leading to the development of exercise perceptions. The context may change but the overall process retains applicability to creating perceptions of exercise. The subjective insight gained throughout the development of the theory: the creation of perceptions of exercise, gives light to numerous areas for future nursing research and practice in hopes of improving the overall quality of life among this population.

This grounded theory study examined the psychosocial processes that contributed to juvenile detention as perceived by the adolescent. Twelve youth (seven males, five females) between 13 and 16 years of age were interviewed at a local detention center. A basic social psychological process, Hoping for a better life, was identified from the interviews. Three stages of this process were explicated as youth recounted a significant loss early in life, reacting externally with delinquent actions, and discovering choices for new behaviors. In Stage One, Enduring the loss was characterized by loss; youth described losing a significant adult, usually a biological parent. Detaching was the basic social structural process (BSSP) used by youth to live with, or to endure, the loss. The themes of detaching were losing a significant adult, resenting the loss, unrelenting grief, unremitting loneliness, and experiencing vulnerability. In Stage Two, Persisting the dissension conceptualized the structural process of repudiating. The BSSP of repudiating provided a transition from the first stage and consisted of three themes. The themes, contingent on how dissension was externalized, included demonstrating internal discord, choosing to remain, and breaking the rules. In this stage, youth repudiated or rejected the rules and norms of socializing agents. Stage Three, Discovering a path, was articulated by youth after being detained in the detention center where opportunity existed for learning self control and self regulation. The BSSP of connecting emerged from the data. Connecting included the four themes of balancing, differentiating, futuring and experiencing equilibrium. Meaningful study findings included discovery of the impact of early significant loss of a parent and sustained substance use.

Nursing is uniquely demanding work and occupational stress in the nursing profession has been well-documented. Many theories of stress-related disruptions among helping professionals have been proposed. Although these theories differ slightly in their origin of stress, they share similarities in nurses’ response to the patient relationship. Depersonalization, withdrawal, and avoidance all serve to create relational distance between the nurse and the patient. Despite the prevalence of these responses, there are not any theories on the nurses’ process of disengagement from patient relationships. Using Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) grounded theory method, this study explored acute care nurses’ experience of disengagement in patient relationships. The purpose of the study was to develop a mid-range theory of nurses’ process of disengagement from patient relationships as it occurred in acute care. Through purposive and theoretical sampling, 12 acute care nurses participated in open-ended individual interviews. The process of open, axial and selective coding discovered seven categories related to nurses’ experience of disengagement from patient relationships. These categories were emotional experience, behavioural expression, environmental influences, relational distance, professional identity and work spillover. Although these categories were exclusive, conceptual elements were interwoven into more than one category. The categories were interrelated around the core category, ‘Doing and Being’, and the process of nurses’ disengagement from patient relationships was delineated. Participants in the study experienced dissonance when they were unable to act in accordance to their caring beliefs. Conditions in the work environment, such as the lack of time, the culture of productivity and patient characteristics influenced and promoted their process of disengagement. Disengagement was manifested in the nurse-patient relationship by decreased eye contact, increased physical distance and increased task focused behaviour. These behaviours increased relational distance between the nurse and the patient. Nurses’ experience of dissonance had the potential to foster feelings of professional dissatisfaction and alienation from self, leading to increased turnover behaviour and depression. Implications and recommendations for practice and future research are discussed.

Grounded theory methodology blended with action research can provide creative approaches to addressing policy-oriented questions with practical outcomes. Practical policy-oriented research outcomes are illustrated through an integrated constructivist grounded action research policy case study applied to collaborative natural resource management for Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO) consideration. The study developed grounded theory, which reflexively informed collaborative strategies and supported action-oriented collaborative tool development. Outcomes were developed to address each of three research questions through cyclical reflexivity of researcher action shifts. Each action shift entailed cyclical reflexivity through re-visitation of data in light of both developed grounded theory and previous research question outcomes. As such, each question was addressed in reflexive cycles that built upon previous research outcomes, which was complimented by authorial reflexively. This constructivist grounded action bricolage demonstrates a reflexive, pragmatic, systematic approach to policy-oriented recommendations and tool development. Reflexive constructivist grounded action shift research supported strategic, integrated policy-oriented research outcomes for DFO Pacific Region's consideration. The hope of this research is to encourage further exploration of constructivist grounded action research as a dynamic, reflexive avenue that can support integrated adaptive organizational policies and management.

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