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Posts from the ‘Evidence’ Category

Sep 19

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Choosing contentment in the midst of life transitions


Susan Bonis’ featured article, which describes a philosophic (hermeneutic) study,  is an example of scholarship that some assume is far removed from the practical realm of nursing practice.  But to the contrary, this thought-provoking article sheds light on one of the most vexing challenges of human practice – how do people come to a sense of enduring serenity (contentment) in the midst of the disharmony created by serious health challenges?  As Dr. Bonis states in her article: “Evidence-based practices begin with understanding the science that underpins the discipline. Nursing is a human science; therefore, it is essential to understand the basic human phenomena that underpin being human, such as contentment.” (see page 274 of her article, available for free download until 9/30/12).

Dr. Bonis examined the published memoir of Dawn Prince-Hughes, a researcher of primate identity and culture.  The memoir, titled “Songs of a Gorilla Nation: My Journey through Autism,” recounts Prince-Hughes’ experience of coming to understand her own journey living with autism.  Dr. Bonis’ hermenuetic interpretation of the memoir, cast in the perspective of the nursing human becoming philosophic framework, provides the basis for her analysis of the experience of contentment.  As a reader of this article, you may not share for yourself the human becoming philosophy, but you will find connections between this philosophy and the most fundamental of nursing concerns.  For me one of the fundamental nursing concerns that this article addresses is that of promoting high-level wellness.  Dr. Bonis describes the process of  contentment as a paradoxical living calm-turbulence in challenging situations – a process that seems to me as central to the basic nursing concept of high-level wellness.  In her conclusion, Dr. Bonis states that “As humans live rhythms of contentmentdisharmony, contentment is glimpsed in serene and pleasurable moments of feeling listened to, understood, cared for, loved, and respected, as well as in moments when they trust, unburden, and laugh while all-at-once acquiescing to arduous situations.” (See page 282). What an inspiring image for nursing practice, and for the outcomes that I believe we all seek!

Let us know your thoughts and responses to this featured article!  Leave your comments here – and we will respond!

Aug 22

From the Author: Lynn Rew


It is a pleasure to introduce Lynn Rew, lead author on one of my Edtitor’s Picks for the current issue.  I suspect that most ANS readers have had some connection to the experience of adolescence, either personally or professionally!  The current “Editor’s Pick” article by Lynn Rew and her colleagues Diane Tyler, Nina Fredland and Dana Hannah reports a research study that sheds light on changes that occur during this highly-charged experience.  Their research provides significant evidence that can guide nursing practice, research and theory development.  Their article is titled “Adolescents’ Concerns as They Transition Through High School”, and while it is featured you can download it for free from the ANS Web site!

Here is a message from Dr. Rew about her experiences of working with adolescents, and some background on the experience of conducting this study:

Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for studying adolescents. Having been an adolescent and parenting two adolescents, I am always curious about how they  change so rapidly and adapt (or not) to these changes. I want to know what adolescents are thinking and doing and why. I began with a longitudinal study of pre-adolescents (4-6thgraders) and found that, for the most part, they engaged in health and safety behaviors; however, when they made the transitions from grade school to middle school and then to high school, many of these behaviors were replaced with what I called health-risk behaviors.

Data for this article came from a longitudinal study of over 1200 adolescents who reside in rural areas in central Texas. For the analysis, I assembled a team that included two family nurse practitioners and a pediatric nurse practitioner.  We met often to determine how we would analyze the written responses of these kids to the prompt, “My main concern is . . .” This writing experience was fun and exciting, not only because we enjoyed reading and interpreting these responses, but also we began to recognize strengths and talents in each other that we hadn’t known before.

Faculty often complain that there is never enough time to write, but when you have a team of nurses who are willing to learn, not only from analyzing the data, but also from each other, writing becomes a joy! I was blessed to be part of such a team.

Aug 18

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From the Authors: Riegel, Jaarsma & Strömberg


This message inaugurates our new blog feature – messages from the authors of our “Editor’s Picks” articles.  Here is a message from Barbara Riegel, Tiny Jaarsma, Anna Strömberg, authors of the featured article “Middle-Range Theory of self-care of chronic illness”

We are delighted to learn that our article is an Editor’s Pick of the current issue of ANS and provided for free to readers. The preparation of this article is the product of 3 years of collaboration during the time when Barbara Riegel was a Guest Professor at Linköping University in Sweden with Professors Tiny Jaarsma and Anna Strömberg. We brought to this collaboration years of individual research in the area of self-care and a growing recognition that comorbid illness complicates self-care for patients. We realized that  if patients and clinicians could be helped to see similarities in the self-care performed for various diagnoses, they might manage their self-care responsibilities  with more ease. Writing this article helped us integrate our prior research in self-care, our efforts to devise methods of measurement for self-care, and our devotion to teaching the next generation of scientists.

Currently, Anna Strömberg is leading a team primarily made up of faculty from Linköping University writing an article in which the theory is applied to a variety of chronic illnesses. As a team, we are teaching a graduate course on self-care of chronic illness at Linköping University. We have plans to develop a family of instruments that can be used to measure patients’ self-reports of self-care. These efforts should keep us busy for the years ahead.

Tiny Jaarsma, Anna Strömberg, Barbara Riegel,

Tiny Jaarsma, Anna Strömberg & Barbara Riegel

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