This descriptive, exploratory study sought to determine how persons with chronic health problems define their experiences of health and illness and to collect information from these subjects regarding their ability to identify their health problems on the list of NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses. A convenience sample of 19 subjects was interviewed using qualitative triangulation methods. Subjects defined experiences of health in terms of their abilities to perform functions independently. Illness was defined primarily in terms of physical symptoms. Thirteen subjects identified self-initiated activities oriented toward alleviation of physical symptoms as strategies for helping themselves get better or feel better when "sick." Subjects were able to use nursing diagnoses to identify their health problems, selecting 61 of the 106 NANDA-approved diagnoses. Data related to subject-selected diagnoses are compared with available NANDA diagnoses by taxonomy category and nurse-interviewer diagnoses. Moving, Perceiving, and Valuing were the taxonomy categories that were most frequently identified by this sample. A new nursing diagnosis of altered nutrition: regimentation (in timing, amounts, and types of food), as well as the need for additional diagnostic development in the areas of urinary frequency, disrupted relationships, and medications were identified by the subjects. Finally, the researchers propose the development of nursing diagnoses that foster health promotion and illness prevention based on the health orientation of this sample, despite their chronic health problems.

Adult↗

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Emerging content in nursing: an analysis of dissertation abstracts and titles: 1976-1982.

This study describes the distribution of content in nursing doctoral program dissertations over a six-year period (1976-1982). Dissertation abstracts were requested from the 25 nursing doctoral programs that admitted students in the fall of 1982. A total of 319 dissertations first were grouped as either studies of clinical nursing or studies of social issues in nursing or studies of social issues in nursing and then coded for all subcategories that described the content of the study. Of the dissertations included in this analysis 78.4% pertained to clinical nursing; 21.6% were studies of social issues in nursing. Further analysis of subcategories and most frequently occurring combinations of study variables showed significant differences in dissertation content when analyzed by program age, geographic region of the country, and type of degree program.

Academic Dissertations as Topic↗