The Health-related Experiences of Foreign Wives in Korea / 성인간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore health-related experiences of the foreign wives. METHODS: A qualitative research design was used to understand the health-related experiences of foreign wives. Ten informants were interviewed from December 2007 to December 2009. RESULTS: The health related life experiences of foreign wives were analyzed within a self development process; Choice and struggle, Change and opportunity, and Settlement and expectation. The theme of choice and struggle includes physical and emotional stress in the initial stage of marriage. The second process of change and opportunity focused on the coping strategies of the women having power after knowledge acquisition from the multicultural family support center. The last theme was health and happiness from the women' perspectives. CONCLUSION: This study has emphasized the health condition of the foreign wives. Since foreign wives are members of Korean society, health care professionals need to design health services to meet their needs.

The Life Stories of Elderly Korean Women with Urinary Incontinence: A Narrative Study Approach

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of urinary incontinence (UI) for elderly Korean women using a narrative approach. METHODS: The data were collected using individual in-depth interviews with 15 community-dwelling elderly women who had UI for at least 1 yr. The narratives of the life stories of these women were analyzed from the actor's perspective, motivation and purpose of actions, and action toward goal achievement. Also the narratives on UI were analyzed according to cognition, behavior, and evaluation of UI. RESULTS: Three major types of the life stories emerged from the analysis. First, the conquest narrative type reflects active characteristics of narrators within the circumstances of the sociocultural context. Second, the patience narrative is characterized as having flexibility between self determination for goal achievement and the boundary of the sociocultural context. Lastly, the compliance narrative reflected characteristics of narrators who easily adapt their way of life to circumstances. In terms of UI, the narrators in all three types lacked awareness of UI as an illness condition. Three different reasons are specifically identified according to the narrative types. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that the concept and the illness behaviors related to UI in elderly Korean women with UI were closely related to the way of women's lives within the sociocultural and historical context.

A Conversation Analysis of Communication between Patients with Dementia and Their Professional Nurses / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand conversations and to identify typical conversational problems between nurses and patients with dementia. METHOD: A conversation analysis method was used. The data was collected in a geriatric institutional setting, using a videotape recorder, and transcribed. The transcribed data was analyzed in terms of expressions, contents, and relationships to identify communicative problems and their resolutions. RESULTS: Among a total of 532 episodes, 440(82.7%) were identified as nurse-involved episodes. In addition, 66 of the 440 episodes were selected based on the significance of the conversation. The communicative problems between nurses and patients in terms of expressions were identified as "directive and authoritative expressions", "emotional and competitive expressions", "evasive and on-looking expressions", and "excessive use of title only", such as calling them granny or grandpa without proper names. In terms of content and relationships, "lack of themes in psychosocial areas" and "nurse-led relations" were identified respectively as communicative problems. CONCLUSION: The results of this study will provide substantial guidelines for nurses in caring for elderly patients with dementia by deeply understanding linguistic structures and problems of everyday conversations between nurses and patients with dementia.

Mothers' Experience of Caregiving for Their Children with Schizophrenia / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore Korean mothers' experiences of caregiving for their adult children with schizophrenia. METHOD: A iterative descriptive qualitative research design was used to understand and explain the caregiving experience from the perspective of mothers. The data were collected by individual in-depth interviews and one focus group interview from 11 mothers. The ages of the participants ranged from 50 to 60 years old and the ages of their sick children ranged from late 20s to early 40s. RESULTS: Three major themes were identified from qualitative thematic analysis: (a) "emotional debris from the disease," (b) "the disease that makes mothers dumb" (c) "space of rational reason." CONCLUSIONS: This study would provide health care professionals insights in establishing intervention for mothers by deeply understanding the process of recognition and acceptance of their children with schizophrenia.

Mothers' Experience of Caregiving for Their Children with Schizophrenia / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore Korean mothers' experiences of caregiving for their adult children with schizophrenia. METHOD: A iterative descriptive qualitative research design was used to understand and explain the caregiving experience from the perspective of mothers. The data were collected by individual in-depth interviews and one focus group interview from 11 mothers. The ages of the participants ranged from 50 to 60 years old and the ages of their sick children ranged from late 20s to early 40s. RESULTS: Three major themes were identified from qualitative thematic analysis: (a) "emotional debris from the disease," (b) "the disease that makes mothers dumb" (c) "space of rational reason." CONCLUSIONS: This study would provide health care professionals insights in establishing intervention for mothers by deeply understanding the process of recognition and acceptance of their children with schizophrenia.

Feminism and Qualitative Nursing Research / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to describe feminism and to propose the integration of a feminist method into qualitative nursing methodology in order to expand the body of nursing knowledge. METHOD: The world view of feminism including philosophy, epistemology and methodology was outlined, and a feminist grounded theory and feminist ethnography were suggested as a way of strengthening nursing research methodology using literature review. RESULT: Four different philosophical perspectives of feminism, that is, liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist feminism, and social feminism were described. Also epistemological perspectives including feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint, and postmodern feminism, were explained and were related to the methodology and methods of feminism. To enhance the strengths of nursing research within the feminist perspectives, feminist grounded theory and feminist ethnography were exemplified in the paradigm of qualitative nursing research. CONCLUSION: This paper suggested that incorporation of feminist approaches within nursing is a valuable attempt to expand the body of nursing knowledge and to enhance the quality of nursing care services by rectifying male-oriented knowledge and by empowering women in the care of other people as well as themselves.

Women Caregivers' Experiences in Caring at Home for a Family Member with Dementia: A Feminist Approach / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore women caregivers' lived experiences in caring at home for a family member with dementia and to identify conditions that oppress women in the context of family caregiving. METHOD: This study was conducted within the feminist perspectives using qualitative secondary data. Ten secondary data conveying self reflective contents were selected from the 25 original data obtained in 1999 to 2000. RESULT: Six themes that emerged from the qualitative thematic content analysis were; androcentric view of family caregiving, undervalued family caregiving by the family members, Self rationalization in the context of family caregiving, family-centric care mechanism, exemplary caring within the family context, and inter-familial relationships among women. CONCLUSION: The main focus of feminist research is to provide empowerment for the women research participants and to bring about social change of oppressive constraint through some actions. On the basis of the research findings, therefore, action strategies from feminist perspectives were suggested in some aspects of health care delivery sectors, nursing education and research sectors, and administrative sectors.

Women Caregivers' Experiences in Caring at Home for a Family Member with Dementia: A Feminist Approach / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore women caregivers' lived experiences in caring at home for a family member with dementia and to identify conditions that oppress women in the context of family caregiving. METHOD: This study was conducted within the feminist perspectives using qualitative secondary data. Ten secondary data conveying self reflective contents were selected from the 25 original data obtained in 1999 to 2000. RESULT: Six themes that emerged from the qualitative thematic content analysis were; androcentric view of family caregiving, undervalued family caregiving by the family members, Self rationalization in the context of family caregiving, family-centric care mechanism, exemplary caring within the family context, and inter-familial relationships among women. CONCLUSION: The main focus of feminist research is to provide empowerment for the women research participants and to bring about social change of oppressive constraint through some actions. On the basis of the research findings, therefore, action strategies from feminist perspectives were suggested in some aspects of health care delivery sectors, nursing education and research sectors, and administrative sectors.

Prevalence Rate of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Among the Elderly in Busan / 예방의학회지

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly people, aged 65 or above, residing in Busan Metropolitan City. METHODS: Total of 1, 101 old people, aged 65 or above, living in Busan as of December 31, 2001 were selected using stratified three-stage cluster sampling. Cognitive impairment was determined from the MMSE-K score, and dementia confirmed from five psychometric measures and the Barthel index. The crude prevalence, sex-age adjusted for the Korean population, were obtained. RESULTS: With the cut-off point for cognitive impairment was set at 24 points, or below, on the MMSE-K scale, the crude rate of cognitive impairment was 29.3% (15.7% for men and 37.5% for women), and the sex-age adjusted prevalence was 30.5% (17.5% for men and 37.0% for women). When the cut-off point for cognitive impairment was set at 20 points, or below, on the MMSE-K scale, the crude rate of cognitive impairments were 10.0% (4.1% for men and 13.5% for women), and 10.6% (4.7% for men and 13.1% for women), respectively. The crude dementia, and the sex-age adjusted rates were 7.4% (2.4% for men and 10.5% for women), and 8.0% (2.7% for men and 10.0% for women), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of dementia in this study was somewhat lower than that reported by other domestic and foreign studies. Our results related to the difference in time and space, diagnostic tools, response rates, and distribution of male and female subjects, etc.