Empowerment and mentoring in nursing academia.

In 2011, there was an expected shortage of 200 full-time faculty. While there are an estimated 322 graduate students in Nurse Practitioner and Masters/PhD programs in Canada today, the supply of potential new faculty falls short of the anticipated demand in the years ahead (Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing). This mixed method study explored how organizational culture and the perceived level of psychological and structural empowerment are associated with one's work environment among Canadian nursing faculty and to explore the state of mentorship in schools of nursing.

Lived experiences of Ghanaian women with obstetric fistula.

Obstetric fistula is a worldwide problem that is devastating for women. This qualitative descriptive study explores the experiences of Ghanaian women who sustained obstetric fistula during childbirth. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants. The resultant themes include cultural beliefs and practices surrounding prolonged labor in childbirth, barriers to delivering at a health care facility, and the challenges of living with obstetric fistula, including psychosocial, socioeconomic, physical, and health care access issues. Recommendations include strategies to address this complex problem, including education of men and women on safe motherhood practices, training of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), and improving access to health care.

Inclusive mosaic: promoting diversity in nursing through youth mentorship.

In this paper we describe the Inclusive Mosaic project, a community-university partnership in an outer-city community in a large Canadian metropolis aimed at promoting diversity in nursing. The project brought together nursing student mentors with middle school and high school youth from diverse backgrounds in a mentoring program aimed at increasing participants' interest in, and confidence in pursuing, higher education and a career in nursing or other health profession. The concepts of emancipatory education, self-efficacy, and possible selves provided the theoretical foundation. Project processes, activities, and outcomes are described, and a post-hoc evaluation encompassing the project's strengths, challenges, limitations, and successes is presented. Recommendations to inform future research and education are also provided.

Type 2 diabetes in vulnerable populations: community healthcare providers' perspectives on health service needs and policy implications.

OBJECTIVES: To identify a) ways of enhancing health services for vulnerable populations with type 2 diabetes, taking into account the social determinants of health; and b) health and social policy approaches to reducing the incidence of type 2 diabetes and improving its management. METHODS: Focus groups were held with 18 community healthcare providers at 3 community health centres in Toronto, Ontario. RESULTS: Community healthcare providers' perspectives were organized under 3 themes: a) the compounding effects of social factors on the health of people with diabetes; b) the need for responsive support at multiple levels; and c) barriers to change. Participants showed a good understanding of the impact of social determinants of health on patients' lives, and they had many ideas about prevention/ health promotion and strategies to enhance health services. They seemed less aware of the important role that political advocacy can play. CONCLUSION: Assessment of the policy environment and political advocacy through coalition-building with communities and other health and social sector service providers should become part of healthcare professionals' education and responsibility. Adequate income and access to proper resources would help with the prevention and optimal management of diabetes.

Expanding nursing perspectives on loss and grieving.

This column seeks to contribute to the understanding of the concept of grieving a loss through capturing the indivisible, unpredictable, ever-changing nature of this universal human experience. Through the process of concept inventing the extant theoretical knowledge concerning grief and loss, classical literature, and the humanbecoming theory and research literature were considered, revealing the idea that grieving a loss is persistent but the meaning of the experience continually changes. Knowledge of the persistent, ever-changing nature of grieving a loss is important for nurses who use humanbecoming theory as a guide while abiding with those who grieve a loss.

Exploring the concept of listening.

The discussion in this column focuses on the idea of listening in theoretical literature and research literature in philosophy, education, medicine, and nursing. A significant gap in information on listening was revealed, pointing to the need for continued examination of this important concept.

The lived experience of suffering: a parse research method study.

The purpose of this study was to enhance understanding about the lived experience of suffering. Parse's phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used to answer the research question: What is the structure of the lived experience of suffering? Participants were 12 elderly persons residing in two longterm care facilities. Data were collected through dialogical engagement. Through the extraction-synthesis process, three core concepts were identified. When joined, they formed the structure: Suffering is unbounded desolation emerging with resolute acquiescence with benevolent affiliations. The finding was linked with the human becoming theory through heuristic interpretation, and is discussed in light of participants' descriptions and relevant literature.

Envisioning nursing in 2050 through the eyes of nurse theorists: Rosemarie Rizzo Parse and Martha E. Rogers.

Rosemarie Rizzo Parse and Rogerian scholar, Violet Malinski, on behalf of Martha E. Rogers, envision how their respective theoretical ideas will be expressed in 2050. Parse introduces several changes highlighting the idea of indivisible cocreation in the ontology of the humanbecoming school of thought and concomitant changes in the wording of its principles. Notions of human freedom and dignity will be extremely important given increasingly mechanized healthcare. Malinski describes Rogerian formulations for practice and research that will continue to facilitate well-being for humankind and the environment. She also addresses challenges and opportunities for an evolving science of unitary human beings.

Envisioning nursing in 2050 through the eyes of nurse theorists: Leininger and Watson.

Madeleine Leininger and Jean Watson envision how their theoretical ideas will be expressed in the world in 2050. Leininger explains how her theory and ethnoresearch methodology have given rise to transcultural nursing and the culture care nursing paradigm and predicts that they will continue to contribute to culturally congruent care practices that promote health, healing, quality of life, and even world peace. Watson provides a vision based on an emergent perspective that emphasizes subjective dimensions related to self-knowledge, self-control, self-caring, and self-healing potential; spirit and wholeness of being/becoming; natural healing approaches; and caring, healing relationships with self and others.

Envisioning nursing in 2050 through the eyes of nurse theorists: Katie Eriksson and Margaret Newman.

Nurse theorists Katie Eriksson and Margaret Newman envision how their theoretical ideas will be expressed in the world in 2050. Eriksson believes that the fundamental concepts of health and suffering in her theory of caritative caring will endure, but will find newer and richer forms of expression. By giving voice to the caring ethos in symbolic form, we can shape the mysterious and unpredictable future. Newman speaks of an emerging pattern of nursing knowledge that reflects compassion, transformation, and freedom. She believes that individual nurses who focus on clients' unitary, evolving pattern of the whole will help to transform the health of society.

On joy-sorrow: a paradoxical pattern of human becoming.

The idea of paradox is central to Parse's human becoming theory. Joy-sorrow is an example of a paradoxical pattern of human becoming which was earlier investigated by Parse, using her research method. Here, the concept is revisited and further explored in light of selected literature, including a classic work on grief and other writings on aesthetic experience. Connections are also drawn between joy-sorrow and the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi.

The Glass Menagerie as heuristic for explicating nursing theory.

Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, is interpreted through the lens of two different nursing theories, the Roy adaptation model and the human becoming theory. In the Roy adaptation model interpretation, adaptive levels of reality testing and stimuli that instigate withdrawal are explored, while in the human becoming theory interpretation, the themes of meaning, rhythmicity, and contranscendence are explicated.

Myth and symbol in nursing theories.

Nursing theories are like myths, in that they contain symbolic representations that tell a story about nursing, and these stories represent or explain nursing's image, worldview, beliefs, and practices. Five theories are analyzed to identify the myths that they represent. It is proposed that uncovering the myth in nursing theories will help to communicate nursing brands that convey the essence and value of nursing.

Grieving a loss: the lived experience for elders residing in an institution.

Grieving a loss is a profound and universal human experience. This phenomenological-hermeneutic study was an inquiry into the lived experience of grieving a loss. The nursing perspective was Parse's human becoming theory. Participants were 10 elderly persons residing in a long-term care facility. The study finding specifies the structure of the lived experience of grieving a loss as aching solitude amid enduring cherished affiliations, as serene acquiescence arises with sorrowful curtailments. Findings are discussed in relation to the guiding theoretical perspective and related literature. Recommendations for additional research and insights for practice are presented.

The concept of intentionality in human science nursing theories.

Nursing as a human science focuses on life and health as humanly experienced. Intentionality is a philosophical idea of particular significance to nursing as a human science, particularly within Parse's theory of human becoming and Watson's theory of human caring. These two theorists' interpretations of intentionality are explored in relation to their respective theories and the implications for research and practice.

Exploring the lived experience of waiting for persons in long-term care.

The purpose of this study was to describe the meaning of waiting for persons who reside in long-term care settings. Parse's theory of human becoming provided the nursing perspective and a qualitative descriptive-exploratory design was used. The 45 participants were residents in three different long-term care facilities affiliated with a university. Data were gathered through interviews. Three emergent themes formed the following unified description: The experience of waiting is intensifying ire while diversionary immersions reprieve amid unfolding becalming endurance. The themes are discussed in relation to participants' descriptions, the human becoming theory, and related literature. Recommendations for practice and further research are presented.

Exploring ethical implications for acting faithfully in professional relationships.

The obligation to act faithfully poses ethical issues as nurses live nursing from day to day. In this column, the ethics of acting faithfully is explored in relation to four scenarios drawn from different realms of professional nursing. The scenarios illustrate ethical issues that may arise when attempting to uphold personal integrity and fulfill one's duty to act faithfully. The theoretical context of this discussion is the human becoming school of thought.

Scientific merit and research ethics.

It is widely accepted that scientific merit and research ethics are closely related. And yet, while the ethical principles that guide research are uncontested, the meaning of scientific merit is open to interpretation based on one's philosophical perspective and research tradition. When adherents of the natural science tradition use the criteria of that tradition to evaluate research situated in the human science tradition, misunderstanding and misjudgment will result. This unfortunate situation has negative implications for the flourishing of human science nursing and, ultimately, may deprive society of opportunities to benefit from humanistic practice aimed at enhancing the quality of life for recipients of healthcare. In such circumstances, it behooves nurses committed to human science nursing to continue to vigorously articulate and pursue their values and ethics concerning nursing research and healthcare.