Although the term empowerment is frequently and broadly used across disciplines, the meaning of the term is often ambiguous. The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of individual members of Renters' Rights Group (RRG), a community development group focused on promoting safe and affordable housing, thereby creating a better understanding of the phenomenon of empowerment. The seven study participants, four males and three females, five of whom were Aboriginal, had been active members of RRG for two years or more. The theoretical framework for this study was Parse's Theory of Human Becoming. Four core concepts were identified as contributing to participants' sense of empowerment: connecting, struggling, contributing, and changing. The findings from this study can be used by nurses and other professionals who work with marginalized individuals or groups. Incorporation of Parse's Human Becoming Theory into practice, education, and research, may facilitate the reflection of caring upon which nursing is founded.

Although the term empowerment is frequently and broadly used across disciplines, the meaning of the term is often ambiguous. The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of individual members of Renters' Rights Group (RRG), a community development group focused on promoting safe and affordable housing, thereby creating a better understanding of the phenomenon of empowerment. The seven study participants, four males and three females, five of whom were Aboriginal, had been active members of RRG for two years or more. The theoretical framework for this study was Parse's Theory of Human Becoming. Four core concepts were identified as contributing to participants' sense of empowerment: connecting, struggling, contributing, and changing. The findings from this study can be used by nurses and other professionals who work with marginalized individuals or groups. Incorporation of Parse's Human Becoming Theory into practice, education, and research, may facilitate the reflection of caring upon which nursing is founded.

Hearing loss is a silent, often overlooked condition which deprives people of the most basic of human needs--the ability to communicate effectively. The notion that there is a dearth of understanding by health care professionals when caring for persons with hearing loss has been acknowledged. This research study aimed to describe the meaning of what it is like to live with a different sense of hearing for seven Canadian participants. The process of inquiry was guided by Parses human becoming theory for nursing (1981, 1987, 1992, 1998). The Giorgi (1970, 1971, 1975, 1985, 1989, 1992) modification of the phenomenological method was used for analysis-synthesis. Five women and two men employed and ranging between 25 and 70 years shared their lived experiences with the researcher via email correspondence. Confidentiality and anonymity were assured. Participants were asked to write about what it is like for them to live with a different sense of hearing. The central finding of this study was: Living with a different sense of hearing is experiencing the joy-sorrow of hearing-not hearing unfolding through discovering gained-lost communication surfacing all-at-once with diminished-enhanced feelings of self while choosing the rhythm of revealing-concealing amid potential regard-disregard of others. The findings of this research build on Parses (1981, 1998) theory of human becoming and may enhance nurses understanding of what it is like to live with hearing loss, which may in turn alter the way nurses structure practice with persons who live with a different sense of hearing, making a difference in their quality of life.

Background: Pain is one of the most common and feared symptoms in palliative care and may cause suffering and reduced quality of life of the dying person. The pain has several different dimensions and is a subjective experience of each individual. How the nurse meets the palliative patient's pain is essential to good health of the patient, which allows a good and worthy death. Aim: The aim was to highlight nurses' experiences in meeting total pain in palliative care. Method: The literature review is based on ten scientific studies of which seven studies with a qualitative approach, a study using quantitative methods and two studies with mixed method. The studies included in the literature review has been reviewed and approved by an ethics committee. Searches were made in the databases MEDLINE and CINAHL Complete full text. Results: The results showed that nurses experienced difficulties to meet patients who experienced total pain. The nurses felt that they had insufficient knowledge and experience in meeting patients with total pain. The nurse worked much with existential conversation. Discussion: Nurses experienced an uncertainty in the face of existential questions, which is a difficult but important part of the work. This is discussed and anchored in Rosemarie Rizzo Parse nursing theory Human becoming along with the concept of caring. / Bakgrund: Smärta är ett av de vanligaste och mest fruktade symtomen i den palliativa vården och kan medföra lidande och försämrad livskvalitet hos den döende människan. Smärtan har flera olika dimensioner och är en subjektiv upplevelse hos varje enskild individ. Hur sjuksköterskan möter den palliativa patientens smärta är avgörande för en god vård av patienten vilket ger möjlighet till en god och värdig död. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att möta total smärta i palliativ vård. Metod: Litteraturöversikten baseras på tio vetenskapliga studier varav sju studier med kvalitativ metod, en studie med kvantitativ metod samt två studier med mixad metod. De studier som inkluderats i litteraturöversikten har granskats och godkänts av en etisk kommitté. Sökningar gjordes i databaserna Cinahl Complete och MEDLINE full text. Resultat: Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskor upplevde svårigheter att möta patienter som upplevde total smärta. Sjuksköterskorna upplevde sig ha bristande kunskap och erfarenhet av att möta patienter med total smärta. Sjuksköterskan arbetade mycket med existentiella samtal. Diskussion: Sjuksköterskor upplevde en osäkerhet i att möta existentiella frågor, vilket är en svår men viktig del i arbetet. Detta diskuteras och förankras i Rosmarie Rizzo Parses omvårdnadsteori Mänsklig tillblivelse tillsammans med begreppet vårdande.