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Condon, Maureen Munn

Nursing

2005

MS

Asthma has been identified as a model condition to investigate the everyday demands of chronic illness upon patients, their families, and the healthcare system. The percentage of the population that is affected with asthma is highest in people under the age of 18 years and over 65. This study explored the process of arriving at care-of-self among people who are older, guided by the following research question: "What are the social processes that an individual who lives with asthma engages in coming-to-know care of self?" The author used grounded theory methodology from a constructivist interpretative posture to provide an explanatory conceptualization of the phenomenon of living with asthma as a process over time. Six women between the ages of 55 and 80 participated in semi-structured interviews and disclosed their meanings and definitions of the illness experience. An illness narrative was integrated early in the analysis process as an additional source of data. Data collection, analysis and participant sampling were performed simultaneously through a constant comparison method. The basic social process of learning to live with asthma emerged from the data. Although processes within the framework of learning to live with asthma embody global initiatives for asthma management, the dominance of variability among participant responses in this small sample bolsters the significance of individualized asthma management strategies. Relevant factors that bridge and hinder access, availability and quality of care for these participants are discussed. The author presents a journal article thesis, which consists of the literature review conducted prior to her research and a journal article that discusses the study's findings. The article has been submitted for publication by the Western Journal of Nursing Research. Manuscript guidelines are included as an appendix for reference. The comprehensive bibliography includes references that were utilized for the research proposal and for integration of the literature during analysis.