Translating and Transforming Care: People With Brain Injury and Caregivers Filling In a Disability Claim Form
This article examines how the Disability Living Allowance claim form, used in the United Kingdom to allocate £13 billion of disability benefits, translates and transforms disability and care. Twenty-two people with acquired brain injury and their main informal caregivers (n = 44) were video-recorded filling in the disability claim form. Participants disagreed on 26% of the questions, revealing two types of problems. Translation problems arose as participants struggled to provide categorical responses to ambiguous questions and were unable to report contextual variability in care needs or divergences of perception. Tr...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Gillespie, A., Moore, H. Tags: Policy & amp;amp; Politics Source Type: research
The Unknown/The Unanticipated: A Surgical Journey of Correcting HIV-Related Abdominal Lipodystrophy
The aim of this study was to explore the pre- and postsurgical journey to correct severe abdominal lipodystrophy of a woman living as AIDS defined for over 23 years. It utilized interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and a single-case-study approach to capture the subjective understanding and sense-making of this surgical process. Verbatim transcripts of seven semi-structured interviews, three participant-created word boards of words or phrases clipped from magazines, field notes, and a reflexive journal were collected as data. Analysis revealed two superordinate themes: the unknown and the unanticipated. These the...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Vella, M. M. Tags: General Articles Source Type: research
Not the Promised Land: African Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Israel
In this study, we interviewed 16 asylum seekers residing in Israel using the narrative method. Based on holistic analysis, we collected three groups of stories: "Then see what course life takes in the future," "I’m not yet free," and "Open prison." In the discussion of the findings, we focus on the similarities and differences among the groups of stories, with reference to the role of the sociopolitical context and to the private and social self as part of the participants’ well-being. We make implementation suggestions for mental health interventions. (Source: Qualitative Health Research)
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Shamai, M., Amir, Y. Tags: General Articles Source Type: research
Womens Construction of Embodiment and the Abject Sexual Body After Cancer
Cancer and cancer treatments can cause significant changes to women’s sexual well-being. We explored how women construct a sense of their bodies and sexual "selves" in the context of cancer. Sixteen women, across a range of ages (20–71 years), cancer types, and cancer stages, took part in in-depth semistructured interviews. We conducted a thematic discourse analysis, drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory, identifying "the abject body" as a dominant theme. Participants constructed abject bodies as being "beyond abnormality," "outside idealized discourses of embodied femininity," and "out of control." The ...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Parton, C. M., Ussher, J. M., Perz, J. Tags: General Articles Source Type: research
An Auto-Ethnographic Study of the Disembodied Experience of a Novice Researcher Doing Qualitative Cancer Research
Qualitative health researchers who explore individuals’ experiences of illness are exposed to an emotionally demanding work environment. After doing 49 interviews with cancer patients living alone, I was confronted with serious emotional distress that kept me from my work for almost 6 months. Because there is a need for discussion within academia about the emotional risks encountered by researchers, I used auto-ethnography to explore what I call the "three disembodied experiences" I encountered during the research: disembodiment linked with suppression of emotions, disembodiment linked with distal traumatization, and...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Benoot, C., Bilsen, J. Tags: Autoethnography Source Type: research
"Im Not Waving, Im Drowning": An Autoethnographical Exploration of Biographical Disruption and Reconstruction During Recovery From Prescribed Benzodiazepine Use
Benzodiazepines are group of drugs used mainly as sedatives, hypnotics, muscle relaxants, and anti-epileptics. Tapering off benzodiazepines is, for some users, a painful, traumatic, and protracted process. In this article, I use an autoethnographic approach, adopting the metaphor of water, to examine heuristically my experience of iatrogenic illness and recovery. I draw on personal journals and blog entries and former users’ narratives to consider the particular form of biographical disruption associated with benzodiazepines and the processes involved in identity reconstruction. I emphasize the role of the online com...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Fixsen, A. M. Tags: Autoethnography Source Type: research
Recursive Health Care Structures and Choice in the Manner of Our Dying: An Auto-Ethnographic Account
Science has shaped our understanding of the diseases we are diagnosed with. Medical treatment has transformed their natural courses. The law has married medical knowledge and experience to the legal competence of physicians to make ultimate decisions for the patient at the end of life. When it is our time to die, we will confront a pre-structured health care landscape affording some courses of action while limiting others. In this article, I provide an auto-ethnographic account of the dying of one woman, my wife, diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It speaks of our meeting with oncology, her refusal of aggressive treatment, and...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Wackers, G. Tags: Autoethnography Source Type: research
Autoethnography in Health Research: Growing Pains?
Autoethnography is gaining acceptance as a legitimate research method in health science research. The growing volume of published autoethnographies is indicative of this trend. After discussing the methodological tenents of this qualitative research method and its compatibility with health-related research, the author illustrates this trend with examples of published autoethnogrpahic books, theses, and journal articles. While celebrating the potential of autoethnography as a suitable health research method, the author critiques dominatly descriptive and evocative illness self-narratives that may evoke emontionally compelli...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - February 15, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Chang, H. Tags: Commentary Source Type: research
Situated Motives of Lay Participants in Community Collaboratives for Childrens Mental Health
Publicly funded programs in many industrialized countries increasingly require the participation of citizens. In this article, I explore the "situated motives" of family members who participated alongside professionals in implementing children’s mental health programs in two communities in the United States. I conducted in-depth interviews with family members and observed monthly meetings of Community Collaboratives to assess how family members understood their participation. The inductive data analysis demonstrates that family members participated (a) as a therapeutic outlet, (b) to pay it forward, (c) to gain new s...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Potter, D. A. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
"Nature Does Things Well, Why Should We Interfere?": Vaccine Hesitancy Among Mothers
The objective of this qualitative longitudinal study was to better understand why mothers choose to vaccinate—or not—their newborns. Fifty-six pregnant mothers living in different areas of Quebec (Canada) were interviewed. These interviews gathered information on mothers’ views about health and vaccination. Almost half of the mothers were categorized as vaccine-hesitant. A second interview was conducted with these mothers 3 to 11 months after birth to look at their actual decision and behavior concerning vaccination. Our results show the heterogeneity of factors influencing vaccine decision making. Althou...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Dube, E., Vivion, M., Sauvageau, C., Gagneur, A., Gagnon, R., Guay, M. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
From Infertility to Successful Third-Party Reproduction: The Trajectory of Greek Women
The purpose of our phenomenological hermeneutic study was to explore the lived experiences of Greek infertile women who achieve a pregnancy through the use of sperm, oocyte, or embryo donation or surrogate motherhood. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 infertile women. Findings suggest that conceiving a child through assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is lived as a highly distressing experience, comprising long waiting periods for medical results, several failed attempts, and treatment options with uncertain outcomes. The analysis of women’s accounts revealed a constitutive pattern, journeying bet...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Papadatou, D., Papaligoura, Z. G., Bellali, T. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
Birthing and Parenting a Premature Infant in a Cultural Context
The purpose of this longitudinal qualitative descriptive study was to explore American Indian mothers’ perceptions of parenting their premature infants over their first year of life in the context of their culture, including the birth and hospitalization experience. A convenience sample of 17 American Indian mothers and their premature infants were recruited from either a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or pediatric clinic in the southeast. Semistructured interviews were conducted at two time points. Through content analytic methods, three broad categories were revealed: descriptions of having a premature infant ...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Brooks, J. L., Holdtich-Davis, D., Docherty, S. L., Theodorou, C. S. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
"Blaming the Flowers for Wilting": Idealized Aging in a Health Charity Video
Amid growing concern about the graying population, an emerging theme in public health discourse is that of "successful aging." In this article, we use a governmentality lens to analyze a Canadian health promotion video, titled "Make Health Last: What Will Your Last 10 Years Look Like?" and viewers’ responses to its message. The video presents starkly different scenarios of the last decade of life, conveying a neo-liberal rationality in which health in old age is positioned as a matter of individual choice. Our analysis suggests that while viewers generally support the video’s message of personal responsibility ...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Harris, R., Wathen, C. N., MacGregor, J. C. D., Dennhardt, S., Naimi, A., Ellis, K. S. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
The Meaning of Patient Experiences of Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms
Current diagnostic models in medical practice do not adequately account for patient symptoms that cannot be classified. At the moment, when all known diagnostic possibilities have been excluded, physicians—and patients—confront uncertainty in diagnosis, which gives rise to the label of Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUPS). This phenomenological study, conducted by two research teams in two geographic locations, sought to explore patients’ experiences of prolonged uncertainty in diagnosis. Participants in this study described their experiences with and consequences of MUPS primarily in relation t...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Kornelsen, J., Atkins, C., Brownell, K., Woollard, R. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
Gender and Workplace Bullying: Mens Experiences of Surviving Bullying at Work
Although men are targets of workplace bullying, there is limited research focused on their experiences. To address this gap, we used a qualitative grounded theory approach and interviewed a community sample of 20 Atlantic Canadian men to explore and explain their experiences of, and responses to, bullying. The main problem identified by men was a lack of workplace support to address and resolve the bullying, a challenge named abandonment. Men addressed this problem by surviving, a process that involved efforts to manage persistent bullying and the associated consequences. Men experienced physical, emotional, and social hea...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - January 10, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: ODonnell, S. M., MacIntosh, J. A. Tags: Qualitative Meta-Analysis: General Articles Source Type: research
