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Thesis (M Nursing)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Wade G. Hill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-44).

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 109 p. : ill., maps (some col.) Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-107).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-211).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Decker School of Nursing, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study explored the ways in which young women perceived themselves in their rural context, now and in the future. Little attention has been paid to rural adolescents, especially in relation to life-career development. The majority of research efforts have ignored the diversity among rural communities. Additionally, little is known about how the unique qualities of a rural community affect female adolescent development and future life choices. An ethnographic-narrative method was chosen because the approach is sensitive to context, the emic perspective, and the construction of narratives embedded in the lived experience of participants. Eight young women, who were long-term residents, were interviewed using an open-ended, unstructured format. Participants expressed their understanding of their world through the completion of community life-space maps, the construction of possible selves, and by creating a photographic display. A four-phase narrative analysis involved four readings (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998): snapshots, life-course graphs, emotional charge, and themes and metathemes. Transcripts were summarized into snapshots of participants' social worlds. Life-course graphs uncovered personal construction of life stories. The emotional charge of participants' narratives revealed their response when talking about their futures. Four views toward the future were evident including apprehension, holding pattern, tentative, and anticipation. Their planning process could be described in four ways, no plans, fuzzy plans, tentative plans and concrete plans. Six metathemes emerged across the narratives: connected and disconnected, feeling supported and feeling unsupported, committed and uncommitted, opening and limiting, tangling with lines of tension, and looking within and looking beyond. Participants expressed a variety of perspectives on their rural experience. Their life-course development was complex, interactive, and affected by the environmental context of the rural community. The paths taken were varied. Their identity development occurred through relationships and varied across social worlds. Notions of the self as bounded and discrete made way for a view of permeable, connected selves through which experience flowed. A holistic, life-course perspective of life-career development widens the focus from the individual to include the social realm. Contexts, values, beliefs, psychosocial factors and other influences and their interrelatedness constitute the system of young rural women's life-career development. / Graduate

In a country cumbered with a legacy of strife, authoritarianism, repression and injustice, the right to be vindicated and assert your rights is extremely important. Karl Klare described our constitution as a transformative one which has the potential to ensure social change for the benefit of those previously advantaged if a purposive approach to its interpretation is adopted. Under our constitutional democracy all are equal under the law and further are inherently imbued with the rights to dignity and freedom (from violence). However, despite the constitutional guarantee of amongst others access to justice, in the wide sense, exercised mainly through the courts, it is a truism that in South Africa this right remains inaccessible to most especially those in the rural areas. One particularly vulnerable group I submit is rural women. In post-apartheid South Africa they are burdened with the legacy of discrimination on the basis of race, sex and class. In the face of an already exclusive legal culture these factors combine together to ensure that accessing the constitutional promises remains particularly difficult. Issues such as language, proximity to the courts, poverty and complex procedures persist to the detriment of rural women. I submit that our adversarial and retributive justice system is foreign, formal and thus inaccessible to rural women and there is a need, in light of our constitutions promises to make justice more accessible. I argue therefore that we need to be conscious of the manner in which our privilege excludes certain groups from the full enjoyment of the law. We need to learn to listen to the voice of the unfamiliar other if law is ever to move from the ideological to the practical realm in the lives of these women. I argue further that this is possible through the use of narratives as a tool of critique and a vehicle for consciousness. Copyright / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Jurisprudence / unrestricted

Introduction: Medication use by women of childbearing age is common. During pregnancy, medications should be used cautiously because some are teratogenic and/or feto-toxic, especially during the first trimester. Few studies have assessed exposure to contraindicated medications in developing countries. Aims and objectives: The overall aim was to assess the risk of exposure to contra-indicated medicines in early pregnancy (less than 13 weeks gestation) in Malawi. Specific objectives were to (i) determine the proportion of women inadvertently prescribed contraindicated medicines in the first trimester of pregnancy in a general outpatient clinic; (ii) explore women's beliefs, views and practices concerning medication use during pregnancy; (iii) determine the prevalence of congenital abnormalities by review of records at community and central hospital sites; (iv) to make appropriate recommendations for policy and practice in Malawi relating to medication use in pregnancy. Methods: A mixed methods approach was used. Survey data were collected at an outpatient clinic at Mitundu Community Hospital (MCH) between 1st February 2010 and 30th July 2010 to determine the range of medicines taken by potentially pregnant women. A pregnancy test established the pregnancy rate in this group. These data were summarised using descriptive and inferential statistics, and the proportions of exposed women who were pregnant were estimated. To understand women's beliefs, views and practices, semi-structured interviews were held with 21 pregnant women at their first visit to an antenatal clinic at MCH. The main themes were identified by Framework analysis. Retrospective data were abstracted from birth registers at MCH and Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) to estimate the prevalence of congenital abnormalities. Results: Of 1103 women prescribed contraindicated medicines in the outpatient clinic, 272 were potentially pregnant. Of the 63 (23.2%) confirmed pregnant (95% CI 18.3%-28.6%), 20 knew or thought they were pregnant, 22 were not sure and 21 did not think they were pregnant. Only 153 (55.9%) were asked about pregnancy by a medical officer before prescription. 3.2% of all pregnant women (95% CI 2.5%-4.1%) attending the clinic were estimated to have been prescribed contraindicated medicines. Eight pregnant women also self-prescribed unsuitable modern medications. Women accepted as safe any medications prescribed in the clinic. They also accepted potions given by traditional birth attendants to counter witchcraft, which they believed caused pregnancy loss. They did not associate use of these medicines with congenital abnormalities, the prevalence of which (6.58/1000 births at MCH, 14.55/1000 births at KCH) was similar to international figures. Conclusion: The study highlights areas of concern for practice, policy and research relevant to maternal health care in Malawi. Clinicians need to reduce the rate of exposure to potentially harmful medicines by paying attention to the possibility of pregnancy in women of childbearing age. There is also a need to facilitate public awareness especially among women about dangers of taking medicines.

This pilot study sought to describe the patterns of health risk factors and objective physical findings in well rural Appalachian women. A retrospective chart review was conducted of the records of 50 women who received a health history, physical examination, and appropriate laboratory testing as part of a rural community wellness project. The most prevalent risk factors found were past or present smoking, history of lung disease, physical inactivity, obesity, and hypercholesterolemia. Higher numbers of risk factors per person were correlated with lower levels of education. The most prevalent physical findings were systolic blood pressure greater than 140 and diastolic greater than 90, diastolic blood pressure greater than 90 with normal systolic, total cholesterol greater than 240, low-density lipoprotein levels greater than 130, and greater than 20% over ideal weight. This sample reveals a high prevalence of risk factors for the leading causes of mortality in middle-aged women, partially accounted for by low formal education levels, poverty, and limited access to health care.