How grounded theory can improve nursing care quality.

This article presents an overview of the grounded theory research method and demonstrates how nurses can employ specific grounded theories to improve patient care quality. Because grounded theory is derived from real-world experience, it is a particularly appropriate method for nursing research. An overview of the method and language of grounded theory provides a background for nurses as they read grounded theories and apply newly acquired understandings to predictable processes and patterns of behavior.

Moral reckoning in nursing.

Analysis of qualitative data resulted in an original substantive grounded theory of moral reckoning in nursing, a three-stage process. After a novice period, the nurse experiences a stage of ease in which there is comfort in the workplace and congruence of internal and external values. Unexpectedly, a situational bind occurs in which the nurse's core beliefs come into irreconcilable conflict with external forces.