PURPOSE: The purpose of present study was to discover the experience of the body of aged women, having had disease. Thus, the researcher tried to explore the perception of the informants and the context in which this perception emerged. METHODS: 9 aged women who had disease or trauma were recruited by snow balling and theoretical sampling methods. The iterative data collection and analyzing process proceeded between September, 1999 and January, 2005. Questions posed to the informants included: "What major change in your body comes from the disease?" "How did you feel about yourself after having had disease?". Data from interviews and participant observation was taken as text. The text was analyzed using the ongoing process of qualitative content analysing method and taxonomy of Spradley. RESULTS: Disease gives aged women a chance to reinforce the meaning of their body: the body as the most low valued component of a human, the body as a wholistic field of interacting each component of human and with natural environment and cosmos, and the body as a source of group identity. These meanings were constructed in their life world by the rules of hierarchy, reciprocity, and group cohesiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The human body is constructed as a cultural being by a social process. Nursing is concerned with the biological body and the social body. The results of this study can serve to help understand the socialization of the body and to construct a somology of nursing.
Classification ; Data Collection ; Female ; Human Body ; Humans ; Nursing ; Snow ; Socialization

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this critical ethnography was to examines the process and discourses through which family caregivers experience while caring for their sick family member in a hospital. METHODS: This was achieved by conducting in-depth interviews with 12 family caregivers, and by observing their caring activities and daily lives in natural settings. The study field was a unit for neurologic patients. Data was analyzed using taxonomy, discourse analysis, and proxemics. All research work was iteratively processed from March 2003 to December 2004. RESULTS: Constant comparative analysis of the data yielded the process of becoming a successful family caregiver: encountering the differences and chaos as novice; constructing their world of skilled caregivers; and becoming a hospital family as experienced caregivers. During the process of becoming an experienced hospital family, the discourse of family centered idea guided their caring behaviors and daily lives. CONCLUSION: The paternalistic family caregivers struggled, cooperated, and harmonized with the patriarchal world of professional health care system. During this process of becoming hospital family, professional nurses must act as cultural brokers between the lay family caring system and the professional caring system.
Socialization ; *Professional-Patient Relations ; Nuclear Family/*psychology ; Male ; Korea ; Humans ; *Hospitalization ; Female ; Caregivers/*psychology ; Anthropology, Cultural ; *Adaptation, Psychological

PURPOSE: This ethnography in communication aimed to explore the changes in consciousness on time and temporality as an elderly became older. This study focused on time as a primary message systems of Edward Hall. METHODS: The assumption of the study was that the aging body as an expression of biological time is a meta of physical, personal, and social time. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork in a clan between Jan, 1990 and April, 2007. The key informants were 13 women and men aged 70 years old or more at the beginning of study. Changes in physical time and temporality as the women's body declined in its physical function was analyzed. As the cultural context, informants' every life and the history of the clan were also analyzed. RESULTS: The meta-time of the informants were constituted as follows: In the low-contextual dimension, physical time perceived as longer and personal time perceived as shorter than they were young; In high-contextual dimension, informant and residents had a polychronic perspective and aged-centered time perspectives.; In the supernatural dimension of time, sacred time were reinforced by rituals. Informants extended temporality to their springs' world and ancestors' world. CONCLUSION: As the informants recognized slugged body movements and time-limited present life, their views on their life world towards the future of spring and of the sacred world of ancestors. Thereby, their identity as a member of a clan was reinforced. This result informed us on what we should focus on when caring with older women.
Aged ; Aging ; Anthropology, Cultural ; Ceremonial Behavior ; Consciousness ; Female ; Gastropoda ; Humans ; Male

PURPOSE: This ethnography in communication aimed to explore the changes in consciousness on time and temporality as an elderly became older. This study focused on time as a primary message systems of Edward Hall. METHODS: The assumption of the study was that the aging body as an expression of biological time is a meta of physical, personal, and social time. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork in a clan between Jan, 1990 and April, 2007. The key informants were 13 women and men aged 70 years old or more at the beginning of study. Changes in physical time and temporality as the women's body declined in its physical function was analyzed. As the cultural context, informants' every life and the history of the clan were also analyzed. RESULTS: The meta-time of the informants were constituted as follows: In the low-contextual dimension, physical time perceived as longer and personal time perceived as shorter than they were young; In high-contextual dimension, informant and residents had a polychronic perspective and aged-centered time perspectives.; In the supernatural dimension of time, sacred time were reinforced by rituals. Informants extended temporality to their springs' world and ancestors' world. CONCLUSION: As the informants recognized slugged body movements and time-limited present life, their views on their life world towards the future of spring and of the sacred world of ancestors. Thereby, their identity as a member of a clan was reinforced. This result informed us on what we should focus on when caring with older women.
Aged ; Aging ; Anthropology, Cultural ; Ceremonial Behavior ; Consciousness ; Female ; Gastropoda ; Humans ; Male

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the discourses and the patterns of problem solving behaviors among the nurse managers. The focus of the study was the difficult situations in caring with patients and their families. METHODS: Field study was performed at a for-profit hospital from March, 2004 to March, 2007. The participants of the study were 5 head nurses and 2 nurses in charge. The data were collected with iterative interviews and participant- observations. For the analysis of the data, taxonomy and critical discourse analyzing were applied. RESULTS: The nurse mangers who showed wholistic patterns of behavior took the role of a broker among the client system, professional nursing system, medical system, and other allied health system. The nurse managers whose approach was profession-centered took the role of protector of nursing system. The nurse manager who practiced nurse-oriented pattern of behavior tried not to have harm against other members of health system. The experiences of nurse managers were effected from the discourses of patriarchal and market mechanism. CONCLUSION: The situation that provoke conflict between clients and nurses become more common with the changes to the health care system and to society. Nurse managers take the role of these conflict problems. The successful solving of conflict in a nursing care setting promotes the quality of care and satisfaction of clients. Programs for enhancing nurse's problem solving competency should anchored be in their practices.
Classification ; Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Nurse Administrators* ; Nursing ; Nursing Care ; Nursing, Supervisory ; Problem Solving

PURPOSE: This ethnograpy was done to explore patterns of health care behavior in patients with chronic health problems. METHODS: The participants were 15 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 2 family members. Among the patients 4 had progressed to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork in a department of internal medicine of I hospital. Data were analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods. RESULTS: Illness and disease, relationship between health care givers and clients, and communication patterns between health professions and clients were discussed as the context of health care behavior. Health care behavior of the participants was categorized by its focus: every day work centered, body centered, organ centered, and pathology centered. CONCLUSION: Participants' health care behavior was guided by folk health concept and constructed in the sociocultural context. Folk etiology, pathology, and interpretation of one's symptoms were influencing factors in illness behavior. These findings must be a cornerstone of culture specific care for the chronic diseases.
Activities of Daily Living ; Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Attitude to Health ; Communication ; Family Relations ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/complications/*psychology ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Liver Cirrhosis/etiology ; Liver Neoplasms/etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Physician-Patient Relations ; *Qualitative Research ; Republic of Korea

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the published articles in the Journal of Korean Academy of Adult Nursing from 2004 through 2006. METHODS: Two hundreds and ten articles were analyzed focusing on research methodology and key words using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The proportion of quantitative research was 88.1%, while the proportion of qualitative research was 5.2%. The majority of the qualitative research design was survey(67.1%). Seventy-four percent of the research had verbal consent and 8% had written consent from the participants. Eight percent of the research provided conceptual framework. The prevailing data collection settings were hospitals(50.5%) and community(37.1%). For the data analysis, 95% used parametric analysis methods; descriptive statistics(26.2%), chi-square test(18.3%), t-test(18%) and ANOVA(17.4%). Key words were categorized into four nursing domain: human, health, nursing, and environment. The most frequently used domain was health. CONCLUSION: The number of the published articles in the Journal of Korean Academy of Adult Nursing has been increased and quality has been improved compared with the articles published before the 2000 year. Varied research methodology and data analysis methods were utilized.
Adult ; Data Collection ; Humans ; Nursing Research ; Qualitative Research ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This ethnography was done to explore the meaning of illness in Korean Americans with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS: The participants were 6 patients with chronic hepatitis B and 6 general informants who could provide relevant data. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork with ethnographic interviews within Korean communities in two cities in the United States. Data were analyzed using causal chain analysis developed by Wolcott. RESULTS: The analyses revealed three meanings for the illness: hidden disease, intentionally hidden disease, and inevitably hidden disease. The contexts of meaning of illness included characteristics of the illness, social stigma, structure of health care system and communication patterns and discourse between health care providers and clients. CONCLUSION: The meaning of illness was based on folk illness concepts and constructed in the sociocultural context. Folk etiology, pathology and interpretation of one's symptoms were factors influencing illness behavior. These findings could be a cornerstone for culture specific care for Korean Americans with chronic hepatitis B.
Aged ; *Asian Americans ; Delivery of Health Care ; Female ; Health Personnel ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/*ethnology/etiology/psychology ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Republic of Korea/ethnology ; Social Stigma

PURPOSE: This qualitative study aimed to understand the experiences of reorganization of everyday lives among the women with chronic health problem. METHODS: In this study, the approach and its process of sociology of everyday lives were adopted. Data for the study came from 6 informants and 9 family members of the informants by interview and participant-observation from January, 2004 to May, 2006. Qualitative content analyzing methods were adopted. RESULTS: Informants' everyday lives were reorganized as follows. During the experiences of shock from unpleasant and unclear symptoms of their body, their sight fixed on the body part. Their time also fixed on a point of present. They started to wander from medical care to folk and lay care. After they were informed that the health problem could not be treated completely, they reduced the world of everyday life and protected themselves from the chaotic unfamiliar world by setting -a- side duties as a family member and severing unessential social relationship. As they achieved a skill for managing their health problem, they gained their former pattern of everyday lives as a woman, a family member, and a social member. Finally, they created a new life world. CONCLUSION: We need more study on the development of an adaptive strategy by the informants, to intervene in the crisis of everyday life.
Female ; Humans ; Lymphedema* ; Shock ; Sociology

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.
Adult* ; Consciousness ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Middle Aged* ; Nursing ; Qualitative Research