An Ethnographic Meta-Synthesis of Three Southwestern Rural Studies.

Objective: The objectives were to synthesize cumulative findings across three critical ethnographic, community-partnered studies in the southwestern United States and to describe the process of meta-ethnography for that analysis.

Design And Sample: The meta-ethnography followed the design of Noblit and Hare for constructing an analysis of composite data, informed by community-based participatory research and Stringer's ethnographic strategies of Look-Think-Act. The three studies occurred in rural settings of Colorado and New Mexico, engaging 129 total participants, along with community organizations and agencies as partners.

Priorities for action in a rural older adults study.

This article reports the findings from a recent study of older adults in the rural southwestern United States and discusses practice and research implications. The aim of the study was to analyze health disparities and strengths in the contexts of rurality, aging, a depressed economy, and limited health resources. Identified themes needing action included sustained access to prescriptions, transportation solutions for older adults in isolated communities, inadequate access to care, poor infrastructure and coordination of services, scarce assisted living and in-home care for frail older adults, and barriers related to culture, language, and economics.

Patterns of knowing: proposing a theory for nursing leadership.

In a time of chaotic and unpredictable health care, it is vital for nursing to employ a nursing leadership theory that is specifically applicable to nurses and will holistically, and comprehensively address and support both the science and art of this honored profession. The authors propose that Nursing Leadership Knowing can address and impact the myriad issues confronting managers and administrators within the turbulent health care industry, with the ultimate goals of quality comprehensive patient care and improved employee satisfaction. They believe that Nursing Leadership Knowing, grounded in the realties of nursing experience, is a logical theoretical extension that can be translated into nursing leadership practice particular and specific focus on empirics and evidence-based practice will not attend to the robust and multidimensional underpinnings of the lived experience that is so vital to nursing as a caring profession.

Frightened in isolation: unique considerations for research of sexual assault and interpersonal violence in rural areas.

One of the least understood topics in forensic science is the unique nature of sexual assault and interpersonal violence in rural settings. There is a need to identify and clarify intervention strategies at all levels of prevention in geographically isolated communities.

Patterns of knowing as a foundation for action-sensitive pedagogy.

Graduate students in the health sciences often juggle full-time careers, demanding programs of study, and family responsibilities. Frustration, a perception of limited caring on the part of role models, and a sense of disengagement, or even despair, are common features of postbaccalaureate study for many of them. Nursing has long recognized the value of multiple perspectives in knowledge development.

Gay-male couples who adopt: challenging historical and contemporary social trends toward becoming a family.

Topic: Gay-male couples who adopt children face ongoing challenges that stem from both historical and contemporary social issues.

Purpose: To examine and identify key points and guidance for advanced practice psychiatric mental health nurses regarding multicultural awareness involved in counseling gay-male couples who explore or exercise their right to adopt and raise children.

Sources: A comprehensive review of the extant scientific literature and public media, clinical anecdotes, therapeutic experiences, and an examination of Healthy People 2010 as it relates to how community health is profoundly affected by the collective beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of everyone who lives in the community.

Getting Started: Initiating C ritical Ethnography and Community-Based Action Research in a Program of Rural Health Studies.

Rural populations experience higher rates of illness, less access to health care resources, and lower rates of health insurance coverage than do urban populations. A need exists to identify and address the health care needs of rural communities and other isolated populations and to contextualize the findings in the larger rural health environment. Critical ethnography combined with community-based action research is a constructive approach for improving the health status of rural elders as well as other members of isolated communities.

Studies of rural elderly individuals: merging critical ethnography with community-based action research.

A model to help reduce health disparities in vulnerable populations is used in this study with Hispanic migrant farm workers in Colorado and multicultural rural older adults in southwestern New Mexico.

Patterns of knowing as a method of assessment and intervention for children exposed to family-member homicide.

The patterns of knowing identified by Carper in 1978, specifically empirics, aesthetics, ethics, and personal knowing, continue to be applied to the expanding role of nursing. Sociopolitical knowing and unknowing add important dimensions, as well. Knowing is an individual process and a metamorphosis of interplay among theory, research, and practice.

Voices from the Gila: health care issues for rural elders in south-western New Mexico.

Background And Rationale: A goal of the Healthy People 2010 initiative is to reduce or eliminate health disparities in vulnerable populations, including populations from rural and minority ethnic backgrounds. Rural communities, including elderly populations, experience lower rates of personal income, educational attainment, health-insurance coverage, access to emergency and specialty care services, and reported health status than do urban communities. A need exists to address identified research priorities, such as the perceptions of rural elders, their family members, and health care providers.

Talking as a primary method of peer defusing for military personnel exposed to combat trauma.

1. Humanitarian relief missions and military operations are unquestionably stressful and clearly have potential to affect the mental health of soldiers. 2.

Matrix analysis as a complementary analytic strategy in qualitative inquiry.

In the current health care environment, researchers are asked to share meaningful results with interdisciplinary professional audiences, concerned community members, students, policy makers, planners, and financial officers. Emphasis is placed on effective health care outcomes and evidence, especially for underserved and vulnerable populations. Any research strategy that facilitates the clear, accurate communication of findings and voices will likely benefit groups targeted for intervention with scarce resources.

A portrait: Magdalena's dream.

A recent critical ethnographic study examined the effects of the health care system, historical exploitation, socioeconomic factors, and cultural values on retired migrant farm workers in northeastern Colorado. Combining ethnographic interviews, participant observation, photography, and critical analysis, study findings indicated a need to increase the cultural knowledge and collaborative efforts of health care providers. Emerging from the study, this article presents a creative composite vignette of retired migrant farm workers.