Editorial: Choosing the Right Qualitative Approach: Is Phenomenographya Design for my Study?

Editorial: Choosing the Right Qualitative Approach: Is Phenomenographya Design for my Study?

Published in: Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research [Internet]. 16Sep.2019 [cited 21Oct.2019];23(4):314-9. Available from: https://www.tcithaijo.org/index.php/PRIJNR/article/view/216447

Introduction

The Pacific Rim Journal of International NursingResearch has published a wide range of studies utilizing different research approaches, as well as introducing to readers’ descriptions of research approaches they may not have considered before. In this short methodology paper, our aim is two-fold.  We begin by encouraging you as the researcher or the would-be researcher to think carefully about the qualitative approach that you choose for your study.  Then we outline phenomenography so that you can decide whether this would be a useful approach for you to explore and use in the future.  Phenomenography is not well known or utilized much in the Asia-Pacific region in nursing research, apart from in Australia. It has been used in the west, particularly in Scandinavia, but also in the  USA, and UK and a few other countries to study different experiences of the people and their perceptions towards certain phenomena. 

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The nutritional intake, dietary pattern, and health outcomes among the adolescent girls in suburban areas of Chennai

The nutritional intake, dietary pattern, and health outcomes among the adolescent girls in suburban areas of Chennai

Published in: International Journal of Nursing and Education and Research, 2019;7(2):01-05.

Abstract:

The adolescent girls in Suburban areas are getting confused between the tradition of the village and modernization of the city due to the transition effect. They will be in a hurry to run fastly with the modern trends and thus, result in nutritional deficiencies, which don’t produce any signs or symptoms during the adolescence period, but the symptoms may worsen later in the pregnancy period. Based on the assumption, the researcher decided to design a project on the nutritional status of the adolescent girls as part of the National Child Rights Research Fellowship (NCRRF). The researcher conducted a study to assess the nutritional intake, dietary pattern, and health outcomes among adolescent girls in suburban areas of Chennai. The researcher used the cross-sectional descriptive design to assess the nutritional outcomes among the adolescent girls, who were in the age group of 10-18 years from the four suburban areas. The total sample size for the study was 200 and the duration of the study was one year. The data collection instrument has two sections: Socio-demographic data and 24 hours recall method. The majority of the adolescent girls take deficit amount of protein 96 (48.0%), iron 198 (99.0%), calcium 195 (97.5%) and vitamin A 152 (76.0%). The subjects who belong to 16-18 years of age demonstrate excess in calorie 42(50.0%) and fat intake 76 (90.48%), and deficit in protein 40(47.62%), iron (84(100%), calcium 82(97.62%) and vitamin A 65(77.38%). The author concludes the paper by suggesting the recommendations from the individual level to the national level to promote adolescent health.

Keywords: Adolescent girls, nutritional intake, dietary pattern, health outcomes, adolescence, adolescent health

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Flawed Indian laws which paralyze the lives of women since five decades-A Nurse Researcher's perspective

Flawed Indian laws which paralyze the lives of women since five decades-A Nurse Researcher's perspective

Published in: Asian Journal of Nursing Education and Research, Year: 2019, Volume: 9, Issue: 1

Abstract:

As nursing is a female-dominated profession, it is also important to take care of the nurse's health physically, psychologically and socially to make them productive in their career. It is seen that one of the social evils like dowry system of India cripples their personal and career lives, and making them weep silently behind the doors. Whilst considering the dowry system as a major issue among them, the researcher studied the origin of the dowry system and Indian dowry laws in detail. Here, the researcher has taken the two Indian laws; The Hindu Succession Act and The Dowry Prohibition Act, to throw light on the various aspects of defaults in the implementation of the amendment to achieve the aim of ‘gender equality and/or women empowerment’ in India. The researcher points out the drawbacks of the Indian laws and gives the recommended solutions to uproot the word ‘dowry’ from the people's mind.

Keywords: Dowry system, Indian laws, women empowerment, gender equality, the nursing profession, flawed laws, social evils.

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Test and development of Fixed-Unfixed Cost Accounting Model (FUCAM) in a Hospital Setting

Test and development of Fixed-Unfixed Cost Accounting Model (FUCAM) in a Hospital Setting

Published in: Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2019; 7(1): 31-34.

Abstract:

The upward escalation of the morbidity rate in India has led to an increased demand for hospital services. At the same time, the hospital management rises the health care cost substantially in India to harvest at the right time. Similarly, the hospitals doubled the patient care charges, as the admission in the hospitals become a nightmare for the people. Here, the paper attempts to understand the difference between the actual cost spent by the hospital and a bill produced to a patient for a normal vaginal delivery through cost accounting model. With a combined prospective and retrospective approach, the author has done cost accounting for a normal vaginal delivery using a fixed-unfixed cost accounting framework. Using the convenience sampling technique, 30 records were audited and 8 normal deliveries were observed. The tool was developed by the investigator, which consists of the demographic data and observation checklist of consumables including drugs, equipment, furniture, and fittings. The maternal records were audited retrospectively to find out the average number of drugs and related consumables used per patient. The concept of this cost accounting is to estimate the cost of services to patients directly and indirectly, which helps in making decisions regarding financial statements and estimate the profit/ loss of the organization. Hopefully, a study of the existing system process in the hospital can lead to the effective logical planning process for the management in the future.

Keywords: Costing, cost accounting, normal delivery, activity-based costing and costing hospital procedure.

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Social determinants of adolescent girls’ dietary pattern in suburban areas in Chennai: A qualitative approach

Social determinants of adolescent girls’ dietary pattern in suburban areas in Chennai: A qualitative approach

Published in: Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences, 5(1), 5-11

Abstract

Background: The idea of adolescent well-being is getting importance all around the world and thus there is a lack of national investigations to survey the factors on the dietary pattern of young girls in suburban regions. 

Aim: The objective of the study is to explore the social determinants of adolescent girls’ dietary patterns in suburban areas of Chennai. 

Design: The phenomenological design was used to explore the social determinants of adolescent girl’s nutritional intake. The study population consisted of adolescent girls, who were in the age group of 15-18 years in suburban areas of Chennai. The tool had two sections: Areas of exploration and indicative questions. The total sample size was 19 with three focus group discussions (FGDs). Thematic analysis was used to explore social determinants. 

Results: The four main categories were identified from the adolescent girl’s point of view in terms of social determinants. It consisted of father and mother (as individual determinants), family (merged determinants of father and mother) and related society. The major themes were knowledge and interest in cooking, tiredness, and lack of time of mother, alcoholism, ill health of a family member, the purchasing power of the family, friends circle, agriculture, seasonal variation, and urbanization.

Conclusion: Closing the gaps, both in research and inaction, would profit the society in general, resulting in enhanced wellbeing and health of adolescent girls and help in harnessing their full physical and mental potential for the overall improvement of the population.

Keywords: Adolescent girls, dietary pattern, phenomenology, qualitative approach, social determinants, suburban areas 

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Why have I been touched badly? A 22 years follow-up research study on factors influencing child sex abuse and solutions to stop it.

Why have I been touched badly? A 22 years follow-up research study on factors influencing child sex abuse and solutions to stop it.

Published in: Asian J. Nursing Education and Research. 2019; 9(1):09-16

Abstract

The technology and democracy have helped us to forward the world fastly, without giving an ultimate solution to many social problems which makes the lives nightmare. Among these, the incidence of child sex abuse has become an unresolved issue and is increasing dramatically nowadays. The author has conducted a 22-years prospective and inquisitive search to explore the factors influencing the sex abuse from offender’s and victim/target’s point of view and to find a solution to eradicate this crime towards children. The researcher has selected a personalized cum case study qualitative approach to explore the factors and solution, introduced the paper with a title of ‘Why have I been touched badly’? and masked the title of the study, statement of the problem, research questions, inclusion and exclusion criteria purposefully to ensure confidentiality, anonymity and trust of the participants at cent percent as it is a highly sensitive issue in the society. The researcher has used triangulation method to evolve results bias-free. The researcher has used diary notes, discussions, observations and case studies. It is seen that there are 11 factors contributing to infant sex abuse, 9 & 6 factors for preschooler and schooler sex abuse respectively. The current research identified 6 phases of child sex abuse; observation phase, introduction phase, Samaritan phase, isolation phase, execution phase and termination phase. The existing body of literature regarding this issue is very limited. The researcher decided to discuss the evolved facts with reported cases of child sex abuse and studied on ‘how could it have been prevented?’ The researcher randomly picked five recent reported cases by media with the detailed explanation of the situational factors except the case study VI, which the researcher has purposefully selected this incident to justify the suggested solution to eradicate the child sex abuse in the society. The researcher concludes the paper with a request for revising POCSO act based on the results of the study, thus hopefully be able to stop the child sex abuse forever.

Keywords: Child sex abuse, Pocso act, bad touch, sex offenders, sex abuse victims, a solution to sex abuse

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Lived experience of disaster victims of South Indian floods 2015: To develop a Concatenated Disaster Crisis model using phenomenographical framework analysis

Lived experience of disaster victims of South Indian floods 2015: To develop a Concatenated Disaster Crisis model using phenomenographical  framework analysis

Published in: Indian Journal of continuing nursing education, 2018, 19(2), 44-53.

Abstract:

The 2015 South Indian floods resulted from heavy rain fall in November-December 2015. The South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai and Andhra Pradesh were badly affected. The aim of the study was to investigate the lived experience of disaster victims of South Indian floods; developing a Concatenated Disaster Crisis model using phenomenographical framework analysis. A qualitative design with phenomenographic approach was used. This study focuses on investigating ‘how do people experience towards the natural phenomenon?’. The results are emerged from three phases of data collection after flooding: within 4 days, 4 months and 3 months subsequently with a total number of 22 samples. The steps followed are familiarization, compilation, condensation, preliminary grouping, preliminary comparison of categories, naming the categories and final outcome space. The results of the study are presented as categories of description and outcome space. Categories of description are typically expressed in the form of 10 categories named as ‘phases’ and description as ‘views’. Ten categories emerged: Disaster ‘expected, but not expected’, pseudo relief ‘save only life’, indolent ‘disaster victims’, reluctant ‘not willing to go back to reality’, empty nest ‘lost everything’, horn bill ‘look at help’, saturation ‘saturated with donated materials’, life initiation ‘start a life from zero point’, recovery ‘disaster becomes a nightmare’ and normal life phase ‘disaster becomes an anecdote’. The Concatenated Disaster Crisis model facilitates the nurses to identify the chain of experiences of victims with variations therein, plan the allocation of resources carefully and provide what the victims are in need. 

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Human senses- Identification of six senses in the human

Six human senses

I would like to share my immense happiness on the publication of research "Identification of sixth sense" and getting attention in other countries too. 

Aristotle (390 BCE-350 BCE), the Greek philosopher has viewed that human has five senses-vision, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. In our current research project (2014-2018), we were able to draw that human has six senses. 

(How to cite this article: Jobin, P., Siva, R., Sudha, R., & Hema, V.H. (2018). Intersensory Perception Model: Integrating the sixth sense in providing Nursing care. Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences, 4(1), 8-17.)

The paper defines the sense or sensing is an ability of a human being for identifying and interpreting the stimulus from the external environment through five sensory organs includes eye, nose, ear, tongue, and skin with six senses such as vision, smell, hearing, taste, touch, and auto-thermoception. 

The sensing is categorized into three:

On sight sensing

It is an ability of a human being to see and interpret the surrounding environment in the visible light through the sensory organ called eyes and the response of the nervous system is known as ophthalmoception.

Abut sensing

The word 'abut' is the Anglo-Latin origin, which means 'touch'. It is an ability of the human being to identify and interpret the surrounding environment by making physical contact through sensory organs such as skin and tongue. The response of the nervous system through tongue is called as gustaoception (taste- for example, ability to interpret taste with the contact between tongue and food) and through the skin with the contact of items is called as thermoception (temperature- for instance, ability to differentiate the high and low temperature with the contact between skin and thermal conductor), nociception (pain - for instance, ability to respond to pain with the contact between skin and needle) and mechanoreception (vibration- for example, ability to identify the vibration with the contact between skin and vibrating material).

Remote sensing

Remote sensing is an ability of the human being to acquire and interpret the surrounding environment without making physical contact and out of sight through sensory organs such as ear, nose, and skin. The response of the nervous system through ear is known as audioception (hearing- for instance, the ability of the human ears to acquire the sound waves from the surrounding) and through nose is olfacception (smell- for instance, ability of the human nose to acquire the smell of the particles from the surrounding). The body is covered with skin, which is normally sensitive to heat and cold. The ability of the skin to identify the level of room temperature in the surrounding environment without touching called auto-thermoception.

The figure explains the three modalities of sensing and highlights five sensory organs and six senses.

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Inter-sensory perception model: Integrating the sixth sense in providing nursing care

Inter-sensory perception model: Integrating the sixth sense in providing nursing care

Published in: Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences, 4(1), 8-17.
Abstract

Introduction: In 21st century, nursing profession is enriched with many theories. However, there exists a wide gap between knowledge and implementation of nursing care. 

Aim: The paper explains causes of this gap and addresses a solution using a conceptual model titled “Intersensory perception in nursing care ‘under empirical concept’ open your  sixth sense in addition to five traditional senses.” 

Methods: A qualitative case study design was used for testing the conceptual model. 

Results: The paper classifies the different modalities of sensing, adds one more nontraditional sense (auto thermoception) to five traditional senses and depicts how general sensory perception can be upgraded to inter-sensory perception among nurses through nursing education process, which is pictured as nursing foundry lab model. It also explains that how nurses can identify homeostatic imbalance among human beings using intersensory perception and help the patient to retain homeostasis. Further, a comparative analysis is done with Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory and criterion based critique model is used to evaluate the role of inter-sensory perception in nursing care. 

Conclusion: Hopefully, these concepts pave the way to implement an effective nursing care using inter-sensory perception and reduce unintentional torts by overcoming ‘numbness’ of senses.

Key words: Conceptual model, inter-sensory perception, nursing theory, sensing, sixth sense

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Job Satisfaction among Community Health Nurses

Job Satisfaction among Community Health Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: The job dissatisfaction leads to critical shortage of man power in health care in many countries and the employee turn over is increasing day by day in public health sector. There are some other factors such as gender discrimination, Job dissatisfaction, exploitation of women employees as they are the majority, low basic pay, poor working conditions, work load, extended working hours etc increase the rate job dissatisfaction. Keeping these issues in mind, the investigators conducted a study to assess the job dissatisfaction among community health nurses in community health nursing department, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. Methodology: A quantitative approach using descriptive design was used to assess the job satisfaction among community health nurses. The study population consist of 30 community health nurses who are working in Community Health Nursing Department. The tool consisted of demographic data and 20 items which covers the dimensions of nature of job and salary. The descriptive and inferential statistics was used to assess the association between two variables. Results: It is showed that the majority of the community health nurses 66.7% were less than 25 years of age. Among them, 96.7% of the community health nurses were females and 3.3% of them were males. It is showed that 86.7% of the community health nurses are satisfied with their work and 66.7% of them are satisfied with their payment. It is reported that 93.3% of them are satisfied with the quality of professional life with the patients in the community. There is no significant association between the job satisfaction and socio demographic variables of community health nurses in the present study. Conclusion: This study results helps the nurse administrators to focus on determinants of job satisfaction which helps to improve organizational structure, enhance job satisfaction, retain and attract the public health nurse workforce to deliver health care services in the community. 

Keywords: Job satisfaction, public health nurse, community health nurse, job security.
Cite: Ponnambily Jobin, Vathsala Sadan. Job Satisfaction among Community Health Nurses. Int. J. Adv. Nur. Management. 2017; 5(3): 191-194. 

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Social burden of alcoholism among the wives of alcoholics in tribal area

Social burden of alcoholism among the wives of alcoholics in tribal area

Published in TNNMC Journal of community Health Nursing

ABSTRACT

The paper explores the social burden among wives of alcoholics in a tribal area, Tamil Nadu, India. A qualitative approach using cross sectional phenomological design was selected.Three focus groups were conducted on consecutive days of the same week with 10, 8 and 10 participants.The analysis of the focus group discussion was done by coding the key words and grouping them under various themes and sub themes. The results showed that alcohol is a social burden in families and communities. It is reported that young age, lack of proper education, child labor, peer pressure, family history and accessibility of the alcohol are the contributing factors of the alcoholism. It is showed that financial problems, not able to educate their children, loss of peace in the family and women harassment are the effects of alcoholism on family. The participants suggested preventive measures for reducing social burden on alcoholism are banning child labor, proper education, enforcing strict laws and closing of alcohol shops.
Key words: Social burden, alcoholism, burden on wives of alcoholics and alcoholism in tribal area
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Assessment of occupational safety, hazards and related health problems among quarry workers at work places in India

Assessment of occupational safety, hazards and related health problems among quarry workers at work places in India

Published in International Journal of Nursing Education and Research

ABSTRACT

Introduction: As quarry site is the dangerous place to work in and quarry workers are more likely to be killed in accidents at any time. Therefore, the investigators tried to assess the occupational safety, hazards and related health problems among the quarry workers at work places in India.

Methodology: A cross sectional survey approach was used. The study was conducted in two quarry work sites in Vellore district. The study population consisted of all 72 quarry workers, who worked in the two quarry sites and the investigators selected the subjects by using convenient sampling method. The check list consisted of demographic data and 30 items, which covers the dimensions of occupational safety, hazards and  related health problems among the quarry workers. Data collection was done for a period of two weeks. 

Results: It was showed that the majority of the quarry workers 52.8% were between the age group of 18-45 years. Among them, 76.3%  of the quarry workers were males and 23.7% of them were females. It was observed that none of them were using any of the personal protective equipments, fist aid boxes were not available and there was no ambulance facility available with in 10 kms of diameter. The quarry workers were not covered under any health insurance schemes and were not trained for quarry work such as machine operation, first aid treatment and safety measures. The majority of the workers had frequent respiratory tract infection(88.8%), back ache (65.2%), joint pain (48.8%) and sinusitis (26.3%). Regarding vision and hearing acuity, 12.5% of them had reduced visual acuity and 15.3% of them had negative Weber and Rinne test too.

Conclusion: The study results make an urgent call on authority for job redesigning, scheduling policies, implementation of strict rules and regulations, health protection programmes and insurance schemes for workers who are involved in dangerous work places such as construction sites, quarry, mining and nuclear power plants.

Key words: Quarry, Occupational hazards, Occupational safety, Occupational problems 

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Development and assessment of Adolescent Boys Stress Questionnaire (ABSQ-2015)

Development and assessment of Adolescent Boys Stress Questionnaire (ABSQ-2015)

Published in ICCR-JNR Journal

Abstract:

Aim-The study aim was to develop and assess an instrument to measure stress level among adolescent boys in relation to school, family, personal and social life.

Methods-Before administering the ABSQ-2015 to adolescent boys (N=380), experts from nursing and psychology in research, practice, tool development reviewed it twice, known as two step validation process. Reliability, construct validity assessment such as content, face, contrasting groups and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was done. Out of 26 items, 16 items were selected and loaded as three factors after EFA, deemed to be interpretable and meaningful.

Results-The assessment of ABSQ-2015 supported construct validity (0.93), reliability (0.97) and Factor analysis KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.82 (P<0.01) which is highly significant.

Conclusion-The ABSQ-2015 is found to useful psychologically and statistically to elicit the stress level among adolescent boys effectively in relation to various determinants of life.

Keywords – Adolescence, adolescent boys, Research instrument, Standardized tool, Stress questionnaire, developing tool
  

Full PDF_ABSQ-2015 

 

Fight the Fear: Using Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Model (PCSA Model),2015

Fight the Fear: Using Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Model (PCSA Model),2015

(Published in International Journal of Comprehensive Nursing)

Abstract

As the child sexual abuse is wide spread public threat, it is high time to take action to stop the sexual predators. Here, the author attempts to develop and utilize a Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Model (PCSA Model), 2015 to address the issue focusing on levels of prevention. The Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Model (PCSA Model) is a conceptual model, focuses on problem solving domain by using a cross sectional flow chart. The PCSA model divides into three swim lanes named 3As- Assess, Action and Awareness. It helps the health care providers in identifying the victim, refer them for care, protect them, follow up and giving awareness with the multidisciplinary approach through the levels of

primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, to fight the fear of children.

Key words: child neglect, child sexual abuse, conceptual framework, conceptual model, fear of children, prevention model. 

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HEALTH BEHAVIOUR AND LEVEL OF STRESS AMONG ADOLESCENT BOYS

HEALTH BEHAVIOR AND LEVEL OF STRESS AMONG ADOLESCENT BOYS

(Published in journal.sochni 2014)

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The concept of adolescent health is getting importance ahead globally, thus far there is a paucity of national studies to assess the health behaviour and stress level among adolescent boys.

Objectives: This study was aimed to assess the health behaviour and stress level among adolescent boys in Vellore city, Tamil Nadu.

Methodology: Descriptive design was used. Using proportionate and purposive sampling technique, 380 subjects studying in 8th, 9th, 10th 11th and 12th grades were selected from the 10 selected schools in Vellore city. The investigator utilized the WHO questionnaire for assessing Health Behaviour and the adolescent stress questionnaire which is developed by the researcher. The content validity of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire tool was 0.93, reliability was 0.97 and Factor analysis KMO and Bartlett's Test 0.82 (P<0.01) which is highly reliable for using the instrument in Indian context (Adolescent Stress Questionnaire 2014).

Results: The adolescent boys were categorized into 10-13, 14-16 and 17-19 years with the distribution of 29.73%, 42.63% and 27.64% respectively. The mean age of the subjects was 14.49±1.46. It was uncovered that 4.7% of the subjects had smoked in their life time and 0.3% of them were currently smokers. Those who have consumed alcohol, majority 17.1% were from upper socio economic families (P=0.05).  Among those who had higher level of stress in regard to family relations, majority of them (54.5%) consumed alcohol (P=0.04). Regarding the safety behaviour, the subjects from upper socioeconomic status (76.3%) were not practising safety behaviour on the roads as compared to the subjects from lower socio economic status (P=0.002). 

Conclusion: The findings suggest an urgent call for implementing the life skill education programme in schools to develop and nurture the adaptive health behaviour among adolescent boys and to cope with stress, which paves the way for moulding a healthier workforce in coming days.

Key words: Health behaviour, stress, smoking, alcoholism, physical activity and adolescent boys.

Adolescent Health Behavior and Stress Level (Full PDF)

Adolescent Stress Questionnaire 2014