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Yes / Objective: This article gives an in-depth insight into the ways in which communication between midwives and the birthing woman shape the birth experience. Background: Birth is a significant life event for many women that can have profound, long-lasting effects on how they see themselves as women and mothers. Within the literature the importance of control over the birth experience and the support that the birthing woman receives from midwives is stressed. Methods: Six women who had recently given birth participated in one-to-one semi-structured interviews designed to explore the kinds of support they received before, during and after their birth. An inductive thematic analysis was employed in order to identify and explore key issues which ran throughout the interviews. Results: Within the interviews the importance of being an active mother, someone who made decisions in relation to her labour, was stressed. The analysis explores the ways in which communication style and compassionate care either enabled or prevented women from adopting the position of ‘active’ mother. Conclusion: It is argued that a personal connection with midwives and clear and open communication which places the birthing woman in a position of control are key to positive birth experiences.

Background COVID-19 brought about unprecedented changes to health care systems, putting a strain on nurses, including those in rural hospitals. The accounts of nurses who worked during COVID-19 can help to increase understanding of this strain and how nurses can be supported during such crises. The aim of this study was to increase the understanding of rural acute care nurses’ experiences during COVID-19 and identify what challenged and supported them. Methods This study was completed using a qualitative description design, supported by the Society-to-Cells Resilience Theory. Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants with a target sample size of 10-30 nurses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between March and May of 2023 via Zoom software; lasting from 60 to 90 minutes each. Content analysis was conducted by the primary researcher, with checks by a secondary researcher on two interviews for coding accuracy. Results Six Ontario rural acute care nurses participated in the study. Three related categories of factors emerged from the analysis; individual, workplace, and community factors. At the individual level, nurses faced social isolation, but were supported by their family and their own optimism. A key workplace factor that contributed to their distress was poor working conditions, including ineffectual management. However, they were supported emotionally by their coworkers. Lastly, the community could have a positive or negative effect depending on how supportive they were of nurses during COVID-19. Conclusion Strong support systems, resource availability in the workplace, and active and supportive management increased nurses’ well-being and resilience in the rural workplace. These findings can be used to inform future policy and management decisions in rural workplaces, especially during times of crisis, to prevent turnover and worsened mental health in rural nurses. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / COVID-19 brought about unexpected changes to healthcare systems, putting a strain on nurses, including those in rural hospitals. This study aimed to learn more about the experiences that rural acute care nurses had during COVID-19, to see what was stressful for them and what helped them to deal with their stress. This study used a qualitative descriptive design to gather this information. Rural nurses were interviewed about their experiences during COVID-19, and this information was summarized. It was found that they experienced stressors, such as poor working conditions and loneliness, in the home, workplace, and in the community. However, people in these places could also offer support. Rural nurses appreciated when their workplace had adequate staff and equipment present for them to complete their work. This study showed how important it is for management to understand the needs of nurses particularly during times of crisis.

No / Objectives: To examine how people from Bradford's Pakistani Muslim community experience living with epilepsy. Specifically, the paper addresses social interactions and negotiations with care providers and considers how different understandings of epilepsy are integrated. Methods: Interviews were conducted with a sample of Bradford's Pakistani Muslim community ( n=20). Interviews were analysed to identify themes and significant areas of shared concern. Results: This paper identifies popular, professional and folk sectors contributing to an individual's `health system'. Where sectors overlap, zones of hybridity are created: that is, a person might simultaneously seek help from a doctor and from a religious healer, or might offer explanations for seizures that include neurological and spiritual components. Discussion: While there are many similarities between the experiences of these minority ethnic community members and published work on the lived experience of epilepsy in other communities, there are also important differences that service providers need to recognize and respond to. Differences include forms of cultural expression and specific language needs. Improving communication between professionals and persons with epilepsy needs to be prioritized.

This qualitative study explores spouse caregivers' understanding of and responses to partners with dementia. Six wives who had been providing care to their husbands in the community for at least two years were interviewed. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and four interconnected themes were proposed: same person or different; relational change; emotional responses to behaviours; and impact on day-to-day life. Participants’ sense of continuity with the past was suggested to influence each theme. The construct of continuity was proposed to be elastic, with both intra-psychic and inter-psychic factors impacting upon its elasticity. Broadly, a sense of continuity seemed to be associated with better adjustment to caregiving.

Yes / Qualitative dementia research emphasises the importance of recognising the voice of the person with dementia. However, research imbued with a politics of selfhood, whereby individuals are called upon to give coherence to experience and emotion, jars with representations of dementia as a gradual decline in capacity. Moreover, it reinforces an assumption that there is an essential experience that can be accessed through different methods. Drawing on Atkinson and Silverman, we view the interview not as confessional but rather as an outcome of social interaction. This paper draws on qualitative interviews from the Improving the Experince of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life (IDEAL) study, to focus specifically on the forms of accounting and storytelling of people living with dementia and how these are produced through the course of the interview encounter. Extracts from our interviews highlight key aspects of this interactional process: (a) social conventions and temporality, (b) self presentation and identity work, (c) accounts and wider cultural meanings. To conclude, we suggest that qualitative research with people with dementia requires a reframing of both the interview encounter and interpretive practices. / The IDEAL study’ was funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) through grant ES/L001853/2 ‘Improving the experience of dementia and enhancing active life: living well with dementia’

Consumers of mental health services are recognized as experts due to their rich lived experiences. Because of their expert status, they are expected to play a vital role in the re-shaping of mental health systems by determining what culturally competent services look like and how services are provided to culturally diverse populations. Therefore, it is essential that the consumers' voices, choices and roles in transforming the mental health system are included in assessing the cultural competence of mental health counselors (New Freedom Commission, 2003). There is a significant gap in the literature regarding the consumers' unique perspective (Pope-Davis et al., 2002). There is a need for both qualitative studies and studies that focus on consumers to gain a deeper, richer insight of the consumers' perspective (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). A qualitative phenomenological design was used to give voice to three participants regarding their perceptions of cultural competence in the counseling relationship. Phenomenological interviews were used to explore in depth and with diversity the participants' subjective meaning of the lived experience (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). Constant comparative research methods were used to analyze the data. Four themes naturally emerged from the data. Theme 1) Defining Cultural Competence was discussed as being inclusive of all differences; not focusing solely on race or ethnicity, including more than recognizing obvious differences, and counselors' willingness to raise and engage in the issue of culture. Theme 2) Counselor Attitude participants voiced that counselors' attitude plays a significant role in whether certain topics are broached and how much is shared about the topic. They reported what counselors convey through their attitude and interactions as being more important than what they convey verbally. Theme 3) The Counseling Relationship was discussed in regard to the importance of counseling relationships that fosters an environment of safety where sharing information and teaching and learning is reciprocal between counselor and consumer and Theme 4) Counselor Attributes were found to be more important than counseling techniques and theories. The findings are presented in a discussion of themes with narratives developed about each case. / Ph. D.

This research reflects a qualitative exploration of the timeliness of pursuits of higher education by females who were classified as non-traditional students at Concord College in southern West Virginia. The researcher studied females, educated in West Virginia, who had completed at least 30 semester hours, and who were at least 25 years of age at the time of admission. The study focused on identifying several factors common to many non-traditional students, including the factors that influenced them to not pursue their education as traditional students, the factors that changed so they recognized higher education as a viable option for themselves, and the factors that influenced them, positively or negatively, in their perseverance to continue in an undergraduate program. / Ph. D.