PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCE OF HEALING AS PERCEIVED BY INDIVIDUALS HAVING UNDERGONE SURGERY (HOLISTIC HEALING).
Contributors: New York University.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 262
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.; Psychology, Physiological.
Description: This phenomenological study was done to explore the experience of healing for nine participants who had had recent surgery. Participants were interviewed in depth at one week post-hospital discharge, and at four weeks post-discharge. They were also interviewed four to six months later for validation of the researcher's interpretation of their experience. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed and data clustered into four main themes. The first theme is Active Participation which includes participants seeking control of their bodies, their activities, their attitudes and their privacy. Participants believed this active involvement was important for healing to occur. The second theme is Achieving Balance. This is the process of participants returning to an integrated system that did not need monitoring and restoring a sense of wholeness. Evolving Beyond is the theme describing how the participants sought meaning in their healing experience. They reviewed past decisions, examined their lifestyle and values, and planned future changes. The fourth theme involves the Healing Process. This process describes patterns and stages of healing and deals with issues of movement and change. The participants in this study have described a holistic process which is congruent with many nursing theoretical frameworks and offers direction for greater understanding of the healing experience.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: B, page: 1349.

Thesis (PH.D.)--NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, 1991.

School code: 0146.