Families of origin of homeless and never-homeless women.

Naturalistic inquiry was used to compare the characteristics of families of origin of homeless women with never-homeless women. The women's experiences in their families of origin were explored during in-depth interviews using Lofland and Lofland's conceptions of meanings, practices, episodes, roles, and relationships to guide the analysis. The two groups were similar with respect to family abuse history, transience, and loss. The never-homeless women had support from an extended family member who provided unconditional love, protection, a sense of connection, and age-appropriate expectations, as contrasted with homeless women who described themselves as being without, disconnected, and having to be little adults in their families of origin. The experience of family love and connection seemed to protect never-homeless women from the effects of traumatic life events in childhood. These findings provide support for the influence of a woman's family of origin as a precursor to homelessness.

Families and hospitalized elders: A typology of family care actions.

The extensive care provided by families to their elderly relatives in the home is well documented. Although family caregiving is likely to be continued during hospitalization of elderly relatives, limited research has been conducted to address the nature of family care for hospitalized elders. The main purpose of this qualitative study was to refine the content domain of family care for hospitalized elders. Altogether 25 interviews were done. Of the 16 participants, 6 were family members, 6 were patients, and 4 were nurses; 7 participants were interviewed once and 9 participants were interviewed twice. Qualitative analysis based on Lofland and Lofland's (1984, 1995) approach resulted in the identification of three major content domains: family members providing care to the patient, working together with the health care team, and taking care of themselves. This typology suggests a shift of research in this area from its current focus on family needs to a view of family caregivers as partners with the health care team.

Finding a balance point: a process central to understanding family caregiving in Taiwanese families.

The grounded theory method was used to explore the psychosocial process of family caregiving to frail elders in Taiwan. Interview and observation data from 15 family caregivers were analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Caregivers used the process of finding a balance point to achieve or preserve equilibrium between and within caregiving and family life. Caregivers who did better in finding a balance point provided better quality care to frail elders. Caregivers who were good at finding a balance point anticipated competing needs, conceptualized multiple strategies to meet the needs, and predicted accurately the consequences of the strategies. They described a wide variety of balancing strategies.

Evaluating teaching effectiveness.

Major reform in nursing education is underway, with increased emphasis being placed on the importance of the teacher-student relationship. An instrument for evaluation of teaching effectiveness, developed at the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Nursing, attempts to capture the student's perception of the quality of the teacher-student relationship as well as other salient aspects of teaching practices. The evaluation tool contains 26 items evaluating teaching effectiveness and 14 items that evaluate the course. The teaching effectiveness items yield five scales including: knowledge and expertise, facilitative teaching methods, communication style, use of own experiences, and feedback. Psychometric testing has been completed and there is evidence of construct validity in relation to teaching effectiveness and internal consistency reliability for the five scales.

Retaining qualitative validity while gaining quantitative reliability and validity: development of the Transition to Parenthood Concerns Scale.

This article raises issues about the retention of qualitative validity while establishing psychometric estimates of reliability and validity for a scale that was developed from inductively generated concepts to assess and evaluate the learning needs and concerns of expectant parents in the trimester before their baby's birth. A set of practical procedures for pilot testing qualitatively based scales is described. The three procedures, which provide estimates of clarity, apparent internal consistency, and content validity, preserve the assumptions underlying qualitative methods. The ratings from these procedures have provided a base for item and scale revisions and formal quantitative testing.

Ethnography of the menopause-related hot flash.

Research was conducted to learn how women of two ethnic groups in the United States experience and describe menopause-related hot flashes, their reports of associated events and activities, and the ways in which they cope with the occurrence of the flashes. The women's cognitive ordering of events was learned through ethnographic inquiry, using questions which were derived from respondent-generated topics. Descriptions and responses to this physiological event were similar, but interpretation differed. Middle-class Anglo American women spoke of the sensations negatively, but for Mexican American women, the menopausal hot flash had positive components of meaning.