The search for meaning in health care inquiries: introducing qualitative meaning analysis.

Purpose: To describe how (QMA), based on a lifeworld theoretical approach, can be made accessible to students and researchers not well-versed in the philosophy of science or qualitative research. Additionally, to demonstrate that it is a more rigorous approach than qualitative content analysis in guiding healthcare inquiries.

Method: In recent years, qualitative approaches in nurse education and research have increasingly relied on various content analytical procedures.

The question of meaning-a momentous issue for qualitative research.

In this article, we identify some worrying problems in the contemporary practice of qualitative research, such as the confusion regarding content and meaning in content analysis, the frequent use of standardized methods that avoids philosophy, as well as the description/interpretation dichotomy in empirical research. Since they all arise from a failure to understand the concept of meaning, we return to the question of meaning as the axis that qualitative research pivots around. We examine the meaning of meaning, and how meaning differs from content, and we then ask what consequences this has for research.

Researching Health Care as a Meaningful Practice: Toward a Nondualistic View on Evidence for Qualitative Research.

Being able to describe how research findings become evidence is crucial in providing a justification for all kinds of research findings. However, qualitative researchers in health care, including those who conduct phenomenological research, are usually fairly modest when it comes qualifying their research findings as such. We advocate a view of evidence for phenomenological research, an approach that is rooted in philosophy of science, including perspectives of ontology, epistemology, and methodology.

Ecological caring-Revisiting the original ideas of caring science.

The aim of this empirically grounded philosophical paper is to explore the notion of holistic care with the intention to expand it into a notion of ecological care and in such a way revisit the original ideas of caring science. The philosophical analysis, driven by lifeworld theory and especially Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, is firmly rooted in contemporary clinical care. We used interview data from patients in a study at an anthroposophic clinic in Sweden, which forms part of an ecological community with, for example, ecological agriculture.

Caring potentials in the shadows of power, correction, and discipline - Forensic psychiatric care in the light of the work of Michel Foucault.

The aim of this article is to shed light on contemporary forensic psychiatric care through a philosophical examination of the empirical results from two lifeworld phenomenological studies from the perspective of patients and carers, by using the French philosopher Michel Foucault's historical-philosophical work. Both empirical studies were conducted in a forensic psychiatric setting. The essential results of the two empirical studies were reexamined in a phenomenological meaning analysis to form a new general structure in accordance with the methodological principles of Reflective Lifeworld Research.

Caring touch--patients' experiences in an anthroposophic clinical context.

This study describes the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspective in an anthroposophic clinical context where caring touch is often used to promote health and alleviate suffering. The aim of the study was to explore and phenomenologically describe the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspectives. The study has been carried out with a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach in order to understand and describe human existential phenomena.

"Caring for insiderness": phenomenologically informed insights that can guide practice.

Understanding the "insider" perspective has been a pivotal strength of qualitative research. Further than this, within the more applied fields in which the human activity of "caring" takes place, such understanding of "what it is like" for people from within their lifeworlds has also been acknowledged as the foundational starting point in order for "care" to be caring. But we believe that more attention needs to be paid to this foundational generic phenomenon: what it means to understand the "insiderness" of another, but more importantly, how to act on this in caring ways.

Interpreters in cross-cultural interviews: a three-way coconstruction of data.

Our focus in this article is research interviews that involve two languages. We present an epistemological and methodological analysis of the meaning of qualitative interviewing with an interpreter. The results of the analysis show that such interviewing is not simply exchanging words between two languages, but means understanding, grasping the essential meanings of the spoken words, which requires an interpreter to bridge the different horizons of understanding.

Being in-between and lost in the discharge process--an excursus of two empirical studies of older persons', their relatives', and care professionals' experience.

The discharge process (DP) is full of well-known risks, and a comprehensive and well-executed DP is especially important for older people with multiple health problems and continuing care needs, as well as for their relatives. Few studies focus on the experiences with the DP by older people in need of home care nursing and their relatives. Therefore, the aim was to deepen the understanding of the DP as a phenomenon described by older people, their relatives, and care professionals.

To be strategically struggling against resignation: the lived experience of being cared for in forensic psychiatric care.

To be referred to care in forensic psychiatric services can be seen as one of the most comprehensive encroachments society can impose upon a person's life, as it entails a limitation of the individual's freedom with no time limit. This study focuses upon patients' experiences of their life situation in forensic psychiatric wards. Using a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach founded in phenomenology, we analysed 11 qualitative interviews with patients cared for on a maximum security unit in a Swedish forensic psychiatric service.

Balancing between closeness and distance: emergency medical services personnel's experiences of caring for families at out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and sudden death.

Introduction: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a lethal health problem that affects between 236,000 and 325,000 people in the United States each year. As resuscitation attempts are unsuccessful in 70-98% of OHCA cases, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel often face the needs of bereaved family members.

Problem: Decisions to continue or terminate resuscitation at OHCA are influenced by factors other than patient clinical characteristics, such as EMS personnel's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding family emotional preparedness.

Being prepared for the unprepared: a phenomenology field study of Swedish prehospital care.

Introduction: This paper presents a study of prehospital care with particular focus on how ambulance personnel prepare themselves for their everyday assignments.

Methods: The caring science field study took a phenomenological approach, where data were analyzed for meaning. Two specialist ambulance nurses, three registered nurses, and six paramedics participated.

Caring assessment in the Swedish ambulance services relieves suffering and enables safe decisions.

This study has a health care science approach and explores pre-hospital emergency care with emphasis on assessment. Health care science is focused on the patient with the general aim to describe care that strengthens and supports health. Assessment in the ambulance services has not been explored earlier from this perspective, despite the emphasis on 'coming close' to the acute suffering patient.

Patient participation: A qualitative study of immigrant women and their experiences.

Patient participation in healthcare is a neglected area of interest in the rather extensive amount of research on immigrant so-called Selma patients in Swedish health care as well as worldwide. The aim is to explore the phenomenon "patient participation" in the context of the Swedish health care from the perspective of immigrants non-fluent in Swedish. A phenomenological lifeworld approach was chosen.

Experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: significant others' lifeworld perspective.

When patients suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA), significant others find themselves with no choice about being there. After the event they are often left with unanswered questions about the life-threatening circumstances, or the patient's death, or emergency treatment and future needs. When it is unclear how the care and the event itself will affect significant others' well-being, prehospital emergency personnel face ethical decisions.

Patient participation in emergency care - a phenomenographic analysis of caregivers' conceptions.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe caregivers' conceptions of patient participation in an emergency care unit.

Background: Patient participation is an important goal in health care. Patients who are given the opportunity to participate in care situations are able to influence care in a way that is more beneficial to them.

The meaning of close relationships and sexuality: women's well-being following a myocardial infarction.

Relationships and sexuality following heart attack (MI) have been studied; nevertheless, little is known about the meaning of social support and relationships to health and well-being after an MI. To our knowledge, no qualitative studies have further investigated the phenomenon. In this study we explore the meaning of close relationships and sexuality to women's health and well-being following MI.

To survive out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a search for meaning and coherence.

The primary responsibility of prehospital emergency personnel at out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) is to provide lifesaving care. Ethical considerations, decisions, and actions should be based in the patient's beliefs about health and well-being. In this article, we describe patients' experiences of surviving OHCA.

Elderly women's experiences of living with fall risk in a fragile body: a reflective lifeworld approach.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of fall risk from a lifeworld perspective in elderly women with previous fragility fractures. Thirteen elderly women with a high risk of fall and fracture, aged 76-86, living in their own homes in rural areas, were recruited from a voluntary fracture prevention programme. All women had a history of fragility fractures and were interviewed in their homes from spring to autumn 2004.

Patient participation in emergency care - a phenomenographic study based on patients' lived experience.

International guidelines promote patient participation in health care. When patients participate in their care they experience greater satisfaction. Studies have shown that patients in emergency departments express dissatisfaction with their care, and it was therefore important to study how patients understand and conceptualize their participation.