Wholeness and life patterning: unitary foundations for a healing praxis

The World of Women's Despair: An Unfolding Unitary Conceptual Journey

In looking back over 3 decades since the development of his interest in developing a unitary conceptualization of despair, nurse scholar W. Richard Cowling, III, had new insights and revelations. The purpose of this dialogue article is to re-envision this journey as one of unfolding, seen with the gift of new eyes. Revisiting this journey allowed him to understand and appreciate it anew. Horizons of possibilities of this conceptual journey are explained in terms of conceptual-theoretical development, inquiry, and the advancement of discipline-specific knowledge, and improving the lives of women in despair. It is his sincere hope, as with all meaningful scholarly endeavors, that a wider discourse occurs with the persistent inclusion of women's voices and experiences.

Mystery and Miracle in Nursing: A Preliminary Unitary Appreciative Inquiry

This study of mystery and miracles in nursing offers a unique perspective in examning and understanding these phenomena grounded in a unitary science framework and guided by unitary appreciative inquiry. It examined 6 years of postings from an online course that gave nurses globally the opportunity to describe and elaborate upon experiences of mystery and miracles in their professional and personal lives. The analysis and synopsis processes used revealed the diversity and uniqueness of mystery and miracle phenomena and acceptance by nurses of their reality without need for scientific explanation despite the tendency to dismiss them by colleagues.

Unitary Appreciative Nursing Praxis

The purposes of this article encompass describing the development of unitary appreciative nursing praxis since the conception of a unitary pattern-based nursing practice over 30 years ago; explicating unitary appreciative nursing praxis in its current state; and clarifying the elements and dimensions of a unitary appreciative nursing praxis model. The body of this work is linked to a greater call for nursing care that transcends the fragmentation and medicalization of the human experience and advocates for nursing that liberates rather than manipulates those who are most vulnerable. Further exploration of praxiological knowing and refinement in conceptual-theoretical development is advocated.

Assessing the Readiness of Nursing Sectors in Low- and Middle-Income Countries to Adopt Holistic Practice: Rwanda as Exemplar

Over the past several years, holistic nursing education has become more readily available to nurses working in high-income nations, and holistic practice has become better defined and promoted through countless organizational and governmental initiatives. However, global nursing community members, particularly those serving in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) within resource-constrained health care systems, may not find holistic nursing easily accessible or applicable to practice. The purpose of this article is to assess the readiness of nursing sectors within these resource-constrained settings to access, understand, and apply holistic nursing principles and practices within the context of cultural norms, diverse definitions of the nursing role, and the current status of health care in these countries. The history, current status, and projected national goals of professional nursing in Rwanda is used as an exemplar to forward the discussion regarding the readiness of nurses to adopt holistic education into practice in LMICs. A background of holistic nursing practice in the United States is provided to illustrate the multifaceted aspects of support necessary in order that such a specialty continues to evolve and thrive within health care arenas and the communities it cares for.

A hermeneutic phenomenological understanding of men's healing from childhood maltreatment

PURPOSE

To describe and interpret men's experience of healing from childhood maltreatment.

DESIGN

Hermeneutic phenomenological.

METHOD

In-depth interviews. Community-based purposive, maximum variation sampling approach. Recruitment occurred through posting flyers and advertisements. Verbatim data were analyzed and themes of the meaning of healing were identified.

FINDINGS

The meaning of healing was interpreted as "moving beyond suffering." Five themes were identified to capture the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon: (a) breaking through the masculine veneer, (b) finding meaning, (c) choosing to live well, (d) caring for the self using holistic healing methods, and (e) engaging in humanizing relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Men who survived childhood maltreatment have needs to heal holistically mind, body, and spirit. Meeting their needs requires the provision of highly compassionate humanistic healing environments and healing-promotive nursing care.

Transformative leadership based on nursing science

The dialogue for this column is a summary of a dialogue among two preeminent nursing scholars and myself that took place "live" at the 40th Meeting of the American Academy of Nursing, focused on transforming healthcare. The dialogue was recorded and transcribed verbatim. In editing the dialogue I tried to leave it conversational which was the nature of the interaction. The paper that follows reflects the thinking of two executive nurse leaders who use different nursing frameworks as the basis for their practice. Translation of their practice models to leadership is presented as a natural transition to transformation.

A composite case study of a woman with human immunodeficiency virus: integration of nursing research and theory with practice

PURPOSE

The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate integration of the research-based standardized languages of NANDA-I, the Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC), and the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) with Barrett's middle range theory of power to support a woman's experience of ending sexual exploitation and stopping drug use.

DATA SOURCE

Clinical practice, the collective experiences of patients, research evidence, and books that explain NANDA-I, NOC, and NIC.

DATA SYNTHESIS

The success of this woman in managing her health supports the use of Barrett's theory of power.

CONCLUSION

Theory and research provide the foundations for quality-based clinical practice.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE

Identification of readiness to change enabled significant life changes.