Meaning of Well-being for the Middle Aged Adults / 성인간호학회지

PURPOSE: This research was done to explore the meaning of 'well-being' as experienced by middle aged people. METHOD: The data were collected by individual in-depth interviews with 107 middle aged adults and it was analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: 4 components of the meaning of well-being as perceived by the participants were identified as follows: the life of free without physical discomfort and psychosocial distress; the life of comfort with plenty of time, space, material, and mind; the life of purity with natural material and honest mind; the life of harmony with extended consciousness. CONCLUSION: Therefore the identified meanings of the well-being in this study should be reflected to the nursing education and the nursing practice.

An Ethnographic Study on Eating Styles of Adult Diabetics in Korea / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore adult diabetics' eating styles and factors which influence them. METHOD: The study adopted an ethnographic method based on a perspective which views the eating style as a cultural phenomenon. Data was collected through a personal interview, participant observation, and documented materials from Oct.2001 to Sept. 2002. In this study, fifteen adult diabetics, with an average age of 57, participated. Data analysis was done by the Spradley's taxonomic analysis technique. RESULT: The patients' eating styles were rooted in their viewpoint on illness as well as the meaning of food. Eating styles were classified into 4 types: Pathology-centered, symptom-centered, need-centered, and role-centered. CONCLUSION: A conventional approach to the treatment and management of diabetes did not consider the patient's inner world which may play an important role in the successful management of the disease. We found that it was critical for health care personnel to understand patients' values, beliefs and their way of life in order to facilitate the most successful self-care diet.

The Illness Experience of Women in Advanced Uterine Cancer / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: This hermeneutical inquiry was aimed at understanding the experience of women with advanced uterine cancer and providing sociocultural data on hospice nursing for these Korean women. We adopted hermeneutic phenomenological approach of van Manen. The research question was "What do women with advanced uterine cancer experience in their life?". METHOD: The data for this paper came from interviews with 11 participants between February, 2000 and May, 2001 and reviews of secondary text of essay and drama, poet, memorandum. Each informant was interviewed three or more times for 30 min.-2 hours. In the process of analysis we did reflective thinking and used line-by-line and highlighting analysis techniques. RESULT: The substantial themes of illness experience of women in advanced uterine cancer were 'Endless suffering', 'In the midst of chaos and darkness,' 'on the wish of new possibility', 'finding new transformed self. CONCLUSION: Women with Advanced uterine cancer suffer with complex problems and wonder in the midst of chaos and darkness, but they find a new transformed self by the wish of new possibility and experience human becoming.

An Analysis of Nursing Research on Diabetes Published in Korea from 1981 to 2000 / 기본간호학회지

The purpose of this study was to analyze research trends and to suggest future directions for nursing research on the diabetes in Korea. The method was a review of 97 nursing research papers on diabetes published between 1981 and 2000. Analysis included year of publication, academic theses or not, research design, key words and the results. The results of the analysis can be summarized as follows: The number of the nursing research papers on diabetes has been increasing. Of those paper analyzed, it was found that 64 (65.97%) were master's theses, and 58 (59.79%) were descriptive or correlational studies. The most frequent key word was client behavior. Client behavior as the dependent variable was reported to be influenced by various causal variables but the results were not consistent. Nursing interventions reported as effective included education, exercise therapy, camps, and telephone coaching. CONCLUSION: We question whether the concepts, measurement scales, and theories used in these research papers were appropriate for Korean clients with diabetes. Development of concepts and theories for Korean clients is necessary.