Grounded in a feminist perspective, a narrative analysis of letters written by Martha Lohmann, a nurse who served with the German Army on the Eastern Front in World War II, is undertaken. Utilizing “gaze” as a focus, an exploration of the narrative and the multiple gazes embedded within it is performed. Implications for future analysis of nurses’ textual accounts of violence, armed conflict, and war are presented.
Georges,JM Benedict,S
Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, University of San Diego, San Diego, California 92110, USA. jgeorges@sandiego.edu
This philosophical analysis critically explores an archeology of militarism as an underpinning to multiple forms of violence, especially war. Deconstructing militarism and its discourses reveal it as a pervasive geographical, cultural, political, and psychological presence. New war technologies, related health and environmental problems, injuries, social suffering, and disproportionality in military spending as a threat to health are uncovered. Continuing the dialogue in formal nursing associations, critiquing media complicity in securing consent for war, and reconstructing a nonviolent, healthier world through nonviolent resistance are advocated.
McGuire-S,Sr Boyle,J
Adrian Dominican Sisters Campus, Siena Heights University, Adrian, MI 49221, USA. smcguireop@yahoo.com
Although numbers of prison inmates are increasing rapidly, limited research addresses health-related conditions prevalent in prisons. Compelling reasons exist for prison research to address high rates of psychiatric, neurological, and other health-related conditions that may precipitate or result from incarceration, high-risk behaviors, infectious disease transmission, traumatic brain injuries, and other issues related to incarceration. Prison research is critical because inmates are frequently re-incarcerated and released, posing potential risks to themselves and the community. The purpose of this article is to provide a pragmatic overview of ethical, regulatory, and investigator considerations to facilitate critically needed research with vulnerable prison populations.
Brewer-Smyth,K
School of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. kbsmyth@udel.edu
There is little research guiding interventions to help old homebound women prepare to manage an intrusion event. During a phenomenological study of the experience of reaching help quickly, I compared intentions during a possible intrusion event for 9 women subscribing to a personal emergency response system and 5 nonsubscribers. The phenomenon of contemplating what I would do if an intruder got in my home had 4 components. Only 2 personal emergency response system subscribers voiced the definitive intention to use the personal emergency response system. Findings underpin a new empirical perspective of competence grounded in situations relevant to living alone at home rather than specific tasks of daily living.
Porter,EJ
Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. PorterEJ@missouri.edu
Millions of youth in the United States are involved in some aspects of bullying behavior. Increasing rates of youth violence, including horrific violent school events, have brought national attention upon the phenomenon. Bullying is a broad construct that covers a wide variety of behaviors from name calling to physical abuse, and it is associated with serious negative health outcomes. Sexual bullying appears to be antecedent to more severe forms of relationship violence, and it is proposed as a conceptual link between bullying and more advanced forms of sexualized violence, such as teen dating violence and adult forms of intimate partner violence.
Fredland,NM
Austin School of Nursing, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78701, USA. nfredland@mail.nur.utexas.edu
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a particular narrative approach in nursing, namely the photo instrument can be connected with Ricoeur’s hermeneutic philosophy. Ricoeur’s concept of mimesis, when supplemented with the concept of performance, is shown relevant for understanding how patients construct and reformulate meaning in illness experiences. A single-case study is presented for a tentative exploration of how the key concepts of mimesis and performance can broaden our understanding of practice. More specifically it concerned the use of photographs in a group with psychiatric patients.
Sitvast,JE Abma,TA Widdershoven,GA Lendemeijer,HH
GGNet, Network for Mental Healthcare in the Region Oost Gelderland, Warnsveld, The Netherlands. j.sitvast@ggnet.nl
Although environment is a core concept in nursing, it has had little theoretical or empirical attention, especially related to healing. This article explores the following aspects of the meaning of healing as they relate to environment as place: (a) healing is grounded in suffering; (b) healing is active and requires presence of the patient and the nurse; and (c) healing is private, spiritual, and profound. Home is explored as a place for healing. The article explores implications for the study of meaning of home, when home is not a place for healing, and future directions for theory and research.
Marshall,ES
School of Nursing, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460, USA. elainemarshall@georgiasouthern.edu
Much of my career has focused on knowing and understanding human wholeness, developing praxis approaches for life patterning and healing, and inquiring into the lives of the women who have been abused as children and live with despair. Sensing the desire of people to share their stories to understand their despair and being discontented with fragmenting and dehumanizing approaches to practice and research, I sought an alternative path. This article describes the personal and professional journey that led me into the lives of women, the discoveries and revelations that emerged, and an appreciation of unimagined potentials for healing. It also confirmed the need for nursing to examine its underlying assumptions of healing.
Cowling-WR,3rd
School of Nursing, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro 27402, USA. richardcowling@uncg.edu
The aim of this longitudinal study was to explore 10 patients’ experiences of the meaning they attribute to the substance of hope and the process of hoping during the first 3 to 4 years following a spinal cord injury. This qualitative study is a synthesis of three empirical studies of hope and the overall aim was to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon of hope, based on the text representing the main contextual findings, to develop a theoretical framework on hope within a context of spinal cord injury, illustrated in the conceptual model. In correspondence with Ricoeur, this conceptual model, which was developed from a new understanding, based on a new text of the phenomenon of hope, develops a new and deeper understanding of the meaning of hope. Findings revealed 9 themes: universal hope, uncertain hope, hope as a turning point, the power of hope, boundless creative and flexible hope, enduring hope, despairing hope, body-related hope, and existential hope. The conceptual model was derived from these themes, illustrated as The Battle between Hoping and Suffering and The Road of Hope. The interpretations also revealed a distinction between being in hope and having hope, and having a hope of improvements was the main focus at the early stage of rehabilitation, whereas being in hope as being just fine was the main focus after 3 to 4 years of rehabilitation.
Lohne,V
The Faculty of Nursing, Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway. Vibeke.Lohne@su.hio.no
This study explored the 5 subconcepts (empowerment, flexible environment, personal knowledge, reflection, and social norms) of the Wittmann-Price Theory of Emancipated Decision Making (EDM) in women’s healthcare, a theoretical model. Pain management for labor was the clinical exemplar. The correlation of EDM and satisfaction with the decision (SWD) was measured, and flexible environment was the subscale with the highest mean score. There was a significant relationship between EDM and SWD (r = 0.70, P < .001). Personal knowledge and flexible environment were the best predictors of satisfaction. This study advances the theory of EDM for the nursing care of women.
Wittmann-Price,RA Bhattacharya,A
College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA.