Parents of children who have been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) often face a challenging dilemma. They are faced with parenting children who often respond from an orientation of feeling unloved and mistrustful of their caregivers. The purpose of this study was to develop a detailed description of the story of four such parents. A multi-case qualitative design and constructivist and coping theoretical frameworks guided the investigation. The constant comparative method of analysis was used to develop three core categories that described the subtitles of parent's experiences. Parent's quotes were used to further embellish the findings. The findings include parent's experiences in recognizing RAD behavior, their response to this behavior, and advice and recommendations they would share with others dealing with this diagnosis. Parents described their child's behavior, resources and methods they used to cope, and had both encouraging and critical reflections of their experiences. / Master of Science

This study examines a collaborative creation and application of an evaluation process for a teen shelter. An independent researcher collaborated with the key administrators of a teen shelter to create an agency-specific evaluation process that gathered both quantitative and qualitative data from three separate participant groups: teen clients of the shelter, their parents, and the staff who work at the shelter. Results of the creation process indicate that collaborating with key administrators is imperative when developing agency-specific evaluations with the goal of program improvement. Application results indicate that the clients and staff at this particular shelter felt the program was very helpful. Responses included participants' ideas as to what was helpful and what aspects of the program made the experience beneficial. Participants offered positive feedback about the effective aspects of the program, as well as suggestions for improving some weaker aspects of the program. Shelter administrators were pleased with the evaluation process and results and were enthusiastic about applying the results toward program improvement. / Master of Science

Less than 5% of registered dietitians are African-American individuals. Little has been done to investigate reasons for the paucity of African-American professionals in the dietetics field. The specific aim of this study was, therefore, to explore facilitators and barriers to the selection of dietetics as a major by African-American students. Individual elicitation interviews and focus group discussions with African-American students currently enrolled as dietetics and non-dietetics majors at Virginia Tech were conducted. It was hypothesized that African-American students who chose to major in dietetics did so primarily for altruistic reasons, whereas African-American students who did not major in dietetics did so, in part, because of a lack of awareness of the major. Forty African-American students (mean ± SD age = 21.4 ± 1.4 years) participated in individual elicitation interviews and focus group discussions. Hypotheses were supported. In addition, personal interest was indicated by both dietetics and non-dietetics students as a factor in selection of major. Non-dietetics students believed that barriers to the selection of dietetics as a major included poor advertising and poor recruitment efforts. Directors of didactic programs in dietetics may need to create more visible recruitment and retention programs to increase the number of African-American students majoring in dietetics. / Master of Science

Viral communication method is shown to be useful for spreading messages in social media. However, only few studies have investigated how public organizations use this method successfully to promote their works in social media. To fill this gap, a qualitative analysis on data from observations and interviews has been conducted. The purpose of this study is to answer a research question: how can a government succeed in promoting their works in social media by using viral communication method? The results found several processes and factors that support the fruitfulness from three perspectives: the messenger, the message and the environment. Moreover, it is pointed out that the most important process is creating memorable messages. Therefore, this study proposes essential characteristics of memorable contents.

Introduction: Youth (15-24) have the highest prevalence of sexual transmitted infections (STI) among all the age groups and this has been attributed to high sexual risk behaviour and low condom use in this group. The use of condoms by youth is negotiated through a complex array of personal and social factors. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of Swedish youth on the factors that affect their use of condoms to protect against STI.  Methodology: The data collection was done over a period of 3 months using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (FGD) and the collected data was analysed with thematic analysis. Findings: Participants perceived that different factors across intimate social circle, community and access to condoms influence the use of condoms by youth in Sweden. The lack of information from the media, embarrassment as a barrier to obtaining condoms and the influence of parents on condom use were prominent findings. Conclusion: Efforts to improve condom use by youth will benefit from exploring the different factors that inform youth’s perceptions on condom use. Opportunities for improvement identified in this study include the installation of condom vending machines, promoting condom use through the mass media and parents discussing condoms with their children.

Background: Each year, thousands of patients around the world receive a new heart through heart transplant surgery. This is a lifesaving action and is most common among people with a heart disease that has led to a severe and non-treatable heart failure, for instance cardiomyopathy. But the process of receiving a new heart comes with challenges and the patients can experience emotional and physical difficulties. Aim: The aim of this study was to illuminate adult patients' experiences after heart transplantation. Method: A literature-based study was conducted and fourteen scientific qualitative articles were analyzed with a qualitative approach. Results: After analyzing the results, three main themes emerged; "To receive someone else's heart", "Learning how to live" and "To experience difficult emotions". Each main theme had three significant subthemes. The findings showed that a diversity of experiences arose among the patients after undergoing heart transplant surgery. They experienced gratitude, faith, concern, existential thoughts and sadness. They expressed support and the pursuit of gaining control in daily life as meaningful and essential. But they also had to handle limitations in their lives concerning the medical treatment, the continuous follow-ups and the diet restrictions. Conclusion: As a nurse it is fundamental to see the heart transplant patient as a unity and a unique person. Thus it is important to notice the patients' psychological difficulties that can arise after heart transplantation and not only observe the physical problems. Communicate with the patients in a motivating and caring way and try to understand their individual experiences of the situation in order to promote their health. In that way we can lay a valuable foundation for nursing.

Abortion is a very controversial topic and over the years, many different attitudes have been formed around it. Previous studies have looked at people’s attitudes towards abortion in relation to gender, age, race, socio-economic background, religion, education and even marital status. The current study aimed to investigate the change of attitudes that students would have towards abortion given a range of circumstances (from serious to less serious). The role of gender in these attitudes was also looked at. This study conducted two separate semi-structured focus groups for each gender (6 males and 5 females). In the two focus groups, each vignette with a particular circumstance was read out to the students followed by questions. These follow up questions were discussed amongst the students present in the focus group. The responses from the students were recorded using a Dictaphone. From the Dictaphone, the information received from these interviews was transcribed. Thereafter, content analysis was used to analyse the findings which aimed to identify different themes. Following this, discursive constructs around abortion as well as conclusions were formed and discussed.

Bakgrund: Kvinnor upplever menstruationscykeln olika, men majoriteten verkar påverkas i någon utsträckning. Det kan vara såväl psykiska- som fysiska besvär. Genom cykeln fluktuerar hormoner som verkar kunna påverka fysisk prestation enligt vissa studier. Avsaknaden av studier som undersöker hur kvinnor upplever fysisk prestation under sin menstruationscykel motiverade till genomförandet av denna studie. Syfte: Att undersöka fysiskt aktiva kvinnors upplevelse av träning under menstruationscykeln och dess inverkan på den fysiska prestationen. Metod: En kvalitativ design användes. Semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex stycken fertila, fysiskt aktiva kvinnor med regelbunden menstruation senaste året genomfördes. Materialet bearbetades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys enligt Graneheims och Lundmans induktiva metod. Resultatsammanfattning: Fyra huvudkategorier identifierades; “variation i sinnesstämning”, “motivation”, “anpassning”och “prestationsvariation”. Kategorierna beskrev faktorer som påverkade den fysiska prestationen under menstruationscykeln. Menstruation beskrevs ofta med symptom som hade en negativ effekt på träning och ägglossning det motsatta, men upplevelserna varierade. Slutsats: Kvinnor som är fysiskt aktiva verkar uppleva en påverkan på fysisk prestation på grund av menstruationscykeln. Det verkar också som att den påverkan som upplevs förändrar sig beroende på cykelns faser. Det är dock ej helt klarlagt om denna påverkan är en faktisk fysisk försämring eller enbart en upplevelse av fysisk försämring. / Background: Women experience the menstrual cycle differently, but a majority seems to be affected to some extent. It can be psychological- as well as physical symptoms. Through the menstrual cycle, hormone levels changes, that seem to have an impact on physical performance according to some studies. The absence of studies investigating how women experience physical performance during their menstrual cycle motivated the implementation of this study. Purpose: To investigate the experience of exercise during menstrual cycle and its effect on physical performance in women who are physically active Method: A qualitative design was used. Semi-structured interviews with six fertil, physically active women, regularly menstruating during the last year. A qualitative content analysis was used according to Graneheim and Lundman´s inductive strategy. Results: Four categories were identified; "mood variation", "motivation", "adjustment" and "performance variation". The categories described factors that influenced the physical performance during the menstrual cycle. Menstruation were often described with symptoms that had a negative effect on exercise and ovulation the opposite, but experiences variated. Conclusion: It seems as women who are physically active experience an impact on physical performance due to the menstrual cycle. It also seems that the impact they experience changes depending on phase in the menstrual cycle. However, it's not entirely clear whether this influence always really is a physical deterioration or just an experience of a physical deterioration.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund I dagens moderna samhälle blir barn och ungdomar allt mer stillasittande och fysiskt inaktiva än tidigare. Enligt studier uppnår så få som 15 % av svenska 15-åringar världshälsoorganisationens (WHO) rekommendationer för fysisk aktivitet. Fysisk inaktivitet ökar risken för flertalet sjukdomstillstånd. Mycket forskning finns angående aktivitetsnivån bland ungdomar men bristfällig data kring hur ungdomar upplever fysisk aktivitet.   Syfte Denna studie syftar till att utforska hur gymnasieelever som inte uppnår WHO:s rekommendationer för fysisk aktivitet upplever att vara fysiskt aktiva samt hur de upplever gällande rekommendationer.   Design och metod En kvalitativ intervjustudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes på sex stycken gymnasieelever, varav tre var kvinnor och tre var män. Den slutgiltiga undersökningsgruppen bestod av fem personer. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av datamaterialet gjordes.   Resultat och konklusion Av studien framkom att motivation och uppskattad aktivitet upplevdes som förutsättningar för att fysisk aktivitet genomfördes. Den aktivitet som utfördes var ofta i samband med skola eller tillsammans med vänner. Skolrelaterad stress uppgavs som den främsta anledningen till utebliven fysisk aktivitet. Studiens resultat visade att deltagarna upplevde fysisk aktivitet som något positivt samtidigt som de inte rör sig i enlighet med WHO:s rekommendationer. Denna ambivalens upplever författarna som intressant och mer forskning borde göras på ämnet. / Abstract   Background In today’s society, children and adolescents are less physical active than previous generations. Studies show, as few as 15% of Swedish 15-year olds obtain the amount of daily physical activity as recommended by The world health organization (WHO). Physical inactivity is a contributing factor to many different diagnoses. Research has been done about levels of physical activity among adolescents, although hardly any studies on the experience of being physically active.   Aim/method The aim of this study is to investigate the experience of being physical active among 16 - 17 year olds who do not obtain the recommendations of WHO and their view on the recommendations. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted for this qualitative interview study. The data was analyzed using a qualitative content analysis.   Results/conclusion This study shows that motivation and appreciated activity is of great importance for being physically active. Physical activity performed by the selection group were mainly school related. School related stress was the main reason for physical activity not being performed. The results shows that the participants have a positive attitude towards physical activity still they are not achieving the recommendations from WHO. The authors believe this ambivalence should be studied further.

Endometrios förekommer hos tio procent av kvinnorna i reproduktiv ålder och karakteriseras av att livmoderslemhinnan felaktigt växer utanför livmodern. Det är vanligt att det tar lång tid att få en diagnos och det påverkar kvinnorna både emotionellt och fysiskt. Sjukdomen är kronisk och trots att det finns många olika behandlingsformer är symtomen ofta svåra att bli av med. Att leva med endometrios är en subjektiv upplevelse och det är därför viktigt att sjuksköterskan ger individanpassad och adekvat vård. Kvinnornas situation behöver beaktas för att kunna lindra deras lidande. Syftet var att belysa kvinnors upplevelse av att leva med endometrios. Metoden för studien har varit en litteraturöversikt. Skillnader och likheter jämfördes i de tio resultatartiklarna. Artiklarna har varit av både kvantitativ och kvalitativ design och inhämtades från databaserna PubMed, Cinahl Complete och Academic Search Complete. Ur resultatet framkom fyra teman. Det första temat var Kvinnors välbefinnande med två subteman; Fysik välbefinnande och Psykiskt välbefinnande. Det andra temat var Ekonomiska svårigheter med följande subteman; Sjukfrånvaro och Arbete. Det tredje temat var Förlust av femininitet med två subteman; Sexuell hälsa och Infertilitet. Det fjärde och sista temat var Socialt med kommande två subteman; Relationer till närstående och Betydelsen av stöd. Upplevelsen av att leva med endometrios var förenat med otillräcklig hjälp mot smärta. Hälso- och sjukvården har ett ansvar att ta kvinnans upplevelse på allvar och se till varje unik situation. Det styrks även av Jean Watsons “Human caring science nursing paradigm” där sjuksköterskan behöver arbeta utifrån ett helhetsperspektiv. / Endometriosis occurs in ten percent of the women in reproductive age and is characterized by the endometrium incorrectly grows outside the uterus. It normally takes a long time to get a diagnose which affects the women both emotionally and physically. The disease is chronic and although there are many different therapies the symptoms are often difficult to get rid of. Living with endometriosis is a subjective experience and it is therefore important that the nurse provides personalized and adequate care. The women's situation needs to be considered to alleviate their suffering. The aim was to illuminate the women's experience of living with Endometriosis. The method of the study has been a literature review. Differences and similarities were compared in the ten results articles. The articles have been of both quantitative and qualitative design and were collected from databases PubMed, Cinahl Complete and Academic Search Complete. Four results emerged from the result. The first theme was Women's well-being with two subtemens; Physical well-being and mental well-being. The second theme was Economic difficulties with the following subtemes; Sick leave and work. The third theme was Loss of femininity with two subtemens; Sexual Health and Infertility. The fourth and last theme was Social with upcoming two subtemens; Relationships with related parties and the importance of support. The experience of living with endometriosis was associated with insufficient help against pain. Healthcare is responsible for taking the women's experience seriously and see to every unique situation. It is also reinforced by Jean Watson's "human caring science nursing paradigm" where the nurse needs to work from an overall perspective.