CONSIDERING TOMORROW: PARSE'S THEORY-GUIDED RESEARCH (HOPE, IMAGINATION, UNDERSTANDING, HOMELESS).
Contributors: Loyola University of Chicago.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this nursing study, guided by Parse's human becoming theory and phenomenological-hermeneutic research methodology, was to investigate the meaning of considering tomorrow for women who were home-less and to integrate the findings with the theory of human becoming. Through dialogical engagements with the researcher, 10 women who were home-less described their lived experiences of considering tomorrow. Through dwelling with the descriptions in the process of extraction-synthesis, the researcher generated the structure of considering tomorrow. This structure is: contemplating desired endeavors in longing for what is cherished, while intimate alliances emerge with isolating distance as resilient endurance surfaces amidst disturbing unsureness. Integration with the theory of human becoming led to the proposal that the meaning of considering tomorrow is: pondering of possibles while yearning for the treasured, as communion-aloneness emerges with certainty-uncertainty. Conceptual interpretation led to a theoretical structure drawn from Parse's theory, in which considering tomorrow is: imaging the valuing in the connecting-separating of originating.

This is the first nursing research study as well as the first Parse study to explore the health phenomenon of considering tomorrow, thus the building of knowledge related to this phenomenon has just begun. This research provides new knowledge for nursing and novel information to add to the home-less literature about an understanding of a paradoxical lived experience involving these women's hopes, dreams, and envisioning of the not-yet, as well as their participation in the day-to-day struggle of living with the now and the not-yet all-at-once when resources and relationships seem limited and pose a challenge. This research expands Parse's theory of human becoming in relation to considering tomorrow, health, and quality of life.

Recommendations for further research include additional research with women who are home-less as well as home-less children and men. Studying this phenomenon in different persons across the life-span would prove informing. Further investigation using Parse's theory and research methodology related to the core concepts in considering tomorrow extracted from the descriptions is also recommended.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-12, Section: B, page: 6668.

Thesis (PH.D.)--LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 1996.

School code: 0112.