Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

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.

When I was thirty-three years old, I discovered I was an adoptee. In this memoir of secrecy and love, betrayal and redemption, I reflect on my early experiences as a doted-on only child firmly rooted in the abundant love of my adoptive family, my later struggles with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, my marriage to a fellow-adoptee, my discovery of my own adoption and the subsequent reunion with my birth family, my navigation through the thrills and tensions of newly complicated family dynamics, and my witness to God's perfect timing through it all.

No description available.

Framed within Parse's theory of human becoming, this descriptive, exploratory study addressed the research question: What is the meaning of the experience of bearing witness for nurses in practice with persons living their dying. Study themes in the language of the participants were enduring commitment surfaces gifts and burdens, telling-not telling mingles with closeness-reserve. and fostering continuing competent practice. Interpreted in the language of the researcher, study findings were written as tenacious devotion engenders exquisite encumbrances, guarded intimacy, and fostering cherished confidence. Study themes were linked primarily with theoretical concepts of valuing, connecting-separating, revealing-concealing, and transforming. Findings were discussed in light of relevant literature, and possibilities for nursing practice, education, policy, and further research were offered.