Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

Purposes/Aims: This study described the unique relationships that develop while providing cancer care to American Indian (AI) populations and the underlying meaning that nurses ascribed to these experiences. Rationale/Conceptual Basis/Background: The establishment of caring relationships in order to provide high quality cancer care is particularly challenging for nurses who engage with ethnic minority populations as they contend with cultural and contextual influences different from those found in the majority population. AIs represent an Indigenous minority group in the U.S. facing a considerable cancer care inequity. Nurses who care for AI patients frequently encounter population-specific issues that impact the caring dynamic, yet their experiences and the meaning they ascribe to them are largely unknown. Methods: This was an interpretive phenomenological study with iterative data collection and analysis. Nine cancer care nurses with a minimum of three years of experience working with AI patients participated by engaging in 2-3 exploratory, open-ended, reflective interviews over a period of 9 months. Thematic reduction was completed to explicate the fundamental structures of nurse-patient relationships during cancer care. Phenomenological and hermeneutical reflective writing resulted in linguistic transformation illuminating the essential meaning for nurses within this patient-nurse phenomenon. Results: Findings include individually-situated wholistic descriptions capturing the existential experiences of each of the participants. Reduction of individually-situated themes into seven shared meta-themes included From Task to Connection; Unnerving Messaging; We Are One; the Freedom of Unconditional Acceptance; Attuning and Opening; Atoning for the Past, One Moment at a Time; and Humanizing the Inhumane. Themes were explicated in a comprehensive general structural description followed by the reconstitution of the data and self-reflection into a deeply introspective essential description, suggesting that the meaning of the AI patient-cancer care nurse relationship was expressed in contradictory yet simultaneous patterns of joy and sorrow; ease and difficulty; obligation and vocation. From one moment to the next, nurses sought synchronicity with their patient as they danced to a life rhythm that revealed and concealed; enabled and limited; connected and separated. Being in relationship provided nurses great purpose within the universal human context of caring. Implications: Results contribute to the development of interventions designed to improve both the AI cancer care experience and the support and training of the nurses who serve this population. Refinement of our praxis will result in improved outcomes for both nurses and AI patients, reflecting the inseparability of the two entities within the cancer care relationship. The complimentary and mutually dependent nature of the patient-nurse relationship implies that strengthening and improving support for one entity may in turn positively impact the other. Further research into the AI patient’s perspective of their relationships with cancer care nurses is called for.

With aging of the baby boomer population, older adults living longer, and no known cure for dementia, the prevalence of dementia in older adults will inevitably rise. Dementia is a terminal illness, although it may not be recognized as such. Family caregivers to persons with dementia provide invaluable care, often at the expense of their own health and well-being. Over the past two decades there has been an abundance of research that examines the various and complex aspects of caring for a relative with dementia. However, there is a paucity of research that has been conducted on the experiences of family caregivers providing end-of-life care. The conceptual framework that guides this research is based on the work of Martin Heidegger. A thorough search of the literature reveals that the main themes of this end-of-life experience studied to date are the experience of grief and loss, and the manifestations of depression in family caregivers. A number of gaps in the literature remain that limit our understanding of the end-of-life care experience. The purpose of the present study is to begin to address this neglected area of research. As a result, the research question is: What is the meaning of the lived experience of family caregivers who provided end-of-life care for a relative who died with advanced dementia? This question was addressed using an interpretive phenomenology based on the work of Munhall. The study utilized a purposeful sample of family caregivers (n = 11) whose relative with dementia died in the last year. Two to three in-person, unstructured interviews were completed with each participant as a way to glean an understanding of their experiences and offer opportunities for the participant to verify their end-of-life caregiving story. A total of 27 interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were hermeneutically analyzed in order to create individual narratives for each participant, reveal the essence of this experience, discuss the influence of the life worlds, consider the taken for granted, and generate an overall study narrative. These findings reveal the complex nature of the end-of-life caregiving experience with dementia.

No description available.

This dissertation provides an account of the ways seven preadolescent boys with autism spectrum disorders describe friendship. This study extends previous research by providing more in-depth descriptions of friendship gleaned through iterative interviews. In addition to multiple interviews with each of the boys, I collected interview data from their parents, and one teacher of each boy. In order to convey friendship from the boys' perspectives, I present data across three broad themes: (1) Establishing and maintaining friendships, (2) Social reciprocity, and (3) Conflicts. The findings indicate that some important components of close friendships, (i.e., frequent and varied interactions, relative equality and reciprocity, maintenance over an extended period of time, and emotional support), that are commonly included in descriptions of preadolescent relationships in the general literature were evident in the close friendships of these boys with autism spectrum disorders. Not only does this study help increase the understanding of the construct of friendship, but of autism spectrum disorders as well. Specifically, my findings challenge the deficit perspective of autism spectrum disorders in several ways: (1) these preadolescents described ways that they socialize with friends rather than ways to avoid social situations in favor of isolation (Kanner, 1943); (2) the majority described same-age friendships as opposed to failing to develop peer relationships (American Psychiatric Association, 2000); and (3) four boys either are developing or have developed social reciprocity with friends, instead of demonstrating a lack of social reciprocity (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Researchers are just beginning to understand how preadolescents with autism spectrum disorders describe friendships. This study provides an important addition to the extant literature by providing insight into how a small group of highly verbal, preadolescent boys labeled with autism spectrum disorders describe friendship. Further research is necessary and will add to the sparse body of literature that just begins to depict how people with autism spectrum disorders understand and experience friendship. / Ph. D.

Subsequent to the growing need for internationally mobile talent, alternative forms of international assignees have arisen (Collings, Scullion and Morley 2007; PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010). This study focuses on such newly appointed internationally working employees, particularly International Business Travellers (abbreviated to IBTs). Inspired by a lack of research attention relating to this labour population, this DBA project opens up the black7box of the IBT working partnership. This is achieved by surveying the role of the IBT as well as the distinctiveness and the state of the psychological contract that the employees involved have with their current employer. The research described and substantiated in this work was devised from the IBT’s perspective, and occurs within a Belgian context. Consistent with a – methodologically revitalising – interpretive phenomenological framework, the study was operationalised on the basis of qualitative, semi7structured interviews with nine IBTs. The thematic data analysis carried out indicated the multifarious, intercultural and strategic role of the IBT, and brought skills specifically characterising the IBT to light. The IBT psychological contract was summarised by eighteen content7related obligations, which contemporaneously display contrasts and similarities with related reference research. The contract in question proved to be evaluated generally positively by the research participants and to develop itself in a unique manner through a noteworthy relational base mixed with a non7negligible transactional facet. Along with a discussion of the principal insights found/contributions made, this thesis includes a number of study limitations, recommendations for further research and implications for successful IBT psychological contract management. Personal reflections are, where relevant, also provided throughout this work.

No description available.

Subsequent to the growing need for internationally mobile talent, alternative forms of international assignees have arisen (Collings, Scullion and Morley 2007; PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010). This study focuses on such newly appointed internationally working employees, particularly International Business Travellers (abbreviated to IBTs). Inspired by a lack of research attention relating to this labour population, this DBA project opens up the black7box of the IBT working partnership. This is achieved by surveying the role of the IBT as well as the distinctiveness and the state of the psychological contract that the employees involved have with their current employer. The research described and substantiated in this work was devised from the IBT’s perspective, and occurs within a Belgian context. Consistent with a – methodologically revitalising – interpretive phenomenological framework, the study was operationalised on the basis of qualitative, semi7structured interviews with nine IBTs. The thematic data analysis carried out indicated the multifarious, intercultural and strategic role of the IBT, and brought skills specifically characterising the IBT to light. The IBT psychological contract was summarised by eighteen content7related obligations, which contemporaneously display contrasts and similarities with related reference research. The contract in question proved to be evaluated generally positively by the research participants and to develop itself in a unique manner through a noteworthy relational base mixed with a non7negligible transactional facet. Along with a discussion of the principal insights found/contributions made, this thesis includes a number of study limitations, recommendations for further research and implications for successful IBT psychological contract management. Personal reflections are, where relevant, also provided throughout this work.

The landscape of cancer care is evolving and as a result nursing care continues to develop and respond to the changing needs of oncology patients and their families. There is a paucity of qualitative research examining the experience of being an oncology nurse on an inpatient unit. Therefore, a qualitative study using an interpretive phenomenological approach has been undertaken to discover the lived experience of being an oncology nurse. In-depth tape recorded interviews has been conducted with six oncology nurses who worked on two adult inpatient oncology units. Van Manen’s (1990) interpretive phenomenological approach has been used to analyze the data by subjecting the transcripts to an analysis both line by line and as a whole. The overarching theme of the interviews is: Investing to Make a Difference. The themes that reflect this overarching theme are: Caring for the Whole Person, Being an Advocate, Walking a Fine Line, and Feeling Like You are Part of Something Good. Oncology nurses provide care for their patients through a holistic lens that further enhances how they come to know their patients. Over time, relationships with patients and families develop and these nurses share that balancing the emotional aspects of their work is key in being able to continue to invest in their work and in these relationships. Their investment is further evident as oncology nurses continuously update their knowledge, for example, of treatment regimes, medication protocols, and as they champion their patients wishes and needs. As nurses develop their own identities as oncology nurses, they in turn enhance the team with their emerging skill and knowledge. These research findings serve to acknowledge the meaning of oncology nurses’ work and inform the profession’s understanding of what it means to be an oncology nurse.