This ethnographic study explored the question, How do urban-based First Nations peoples use healing traditions to address their health issues? The objectives were to examine how Aboriginal traditions addressed health issues and explore the link between such traditions and holism in nursing practice. Data collection consisted of individual interviews, participant observations, and field notes. Three major categories that emerged from the data analysis were: following a cultural path, gaining balance, and sharing in the circle of life. The global theme of healing holistically included following a cultural path by regaining culture through the use of healing traditions; gaining balance in the four realms of spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health; and sharing in the circle of life by cultural interactions between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal health professionals. Implications for practice include incorporating the concepts of balance, holism, and cultural healing into the health care services for diverse Aboriginal peoples.
Ah-ayitaw isi e-ki-kiskeyihtahkik maskihkiy. They knew both sides of medicine: Cree tales of curing and cursing told by Alice Ahenakew. [Review of: Ahenakew, A. Ah-ayitaw isi e-ki-kiskeyihtahkik maskihkiy. They knew both sides of medicine: Cree tales of curing and cursing told by Alice Ahenakew. Winnipeg: U. of Manitoba Pr., 2000].
This article builds on the People Awakening (PA) Project, which explored an Alaska Native (AN) understanding of the recovery process from alcohol use disorder and sobriety. The aim of this study is to explore motivating and maintenance factors for sobriety among older AN adult participants (age 50+) from across Alaska. Ten life history narratives of Alaska Native older adults, representing Alutiiq, Athabascan, Tlingit, Yup'ik/Cup'ik Eskimos, from the PA sample were explored using thematic analysis. AN older adults are motivated to abstain from, or to quit drinking alcohol through spirituality, family influence, role socialization and others' role modeling, and a desire to engage in indigenous cultural generative activities with their family and community. A desire to pass on their accumulated wisdom to a younger generation through engagement and sharing of culturally grounded activities and values, or indigenous cultural generativity, is a central unifying motivational and maintenance factor for sobriety. The implications of this research indicates that family, role expectations and socialization, desire for community and culture engagement, and spirituality are central features to both AN Elders' understanding of sobriety, and more broadly, to their successful aging. Future research is needed to test these findings in population-based studies and to explore incorporation of these findings into alcohol treatment programs to support older AN adults' desire to quit drinking and attain long-term sobriety. Sobriety can put older AN adults on a pathway to successful aging, in positions to serve as role models for their family and community, where they are provided opportunities to engage in meaningful indigenous cultural generative acts.
For more than a decade, the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) has sought to bring attention, understanding, and solutions to the problem of substance abuse and related violence among Alaska Natives. Progress has been made in some communities, but substance abuse continues to cause suffering, pain, death, and despair among many Alaska Native families. At the request of AFN, this report was undertaken to provide a basis for deriving effective, lasting solutions.
BACKGROUND: American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) remain underrepresented in the medical profession. This study sought to understand the supports and barriers that AI/AN students encountered on their path to successful medical school entry. METHOD: The research team analyzed qualitative semistructured, one-on-one, confidential interviews with 10 AI/AN medical students to identify salient support and barrier themes. RESULTS: Supports and barriers clustered in eight categories: educational experiences, competing career options and priorities, health care experiences, financial factors, cultural connections, family and friends, spirituality, and discrimination. Some of the most notable findings of this study include the following: (1) students reported financial barriers severe enough to constrain participation in the medical school application process, and (2) spirituality played an important role as students pursued a medical career. CONCLUSION: Promoting AI/AN participation in medical careers can be facilitated with strategies appropriate to the academic, financial, and cultural needs of AI/AN students.
To arrive at an understanding of the lived experience of healthy donor and nondonor siblings as they transition through the bone marrow transplantation (BMT) trajectory.
Qualitative study guided by the philosophy of hermeneutic phenomenology.
Participants' homes or the investigator's university or hospital office.
Eight siblings of pediatric BMT recipients were recruited based on their knowledge of the experience of transitioning through the BMT trajectory.
Data were collected by semistructured, open-ended interviews; demographic forms; and field notes during a period of six months. Data analysis occurred concurrently with data collection. Thematic statements were isolated using Van Manen's selective highlighting approach. Interviews were reviewed repeatedly for significant statements.
Siblings' lived experience of the BMT trajectory.
Interruption in family life emerged as the essence of siblings' lived experience. Four themes supported this essence: life goes on, feeling more or less a part of a family, faith in God that things will be okay, and feelings around families.
Hermeneutic phenomenologic research increases understanding of what being a sibling of a pediatric BMT recipient means. This study is one of the few that have afforded siblings the opportunity to speak about what is important to them.
Findings from this study provide insight into how siblings live and cope throughout the BMT trajectory and will guide nurses as they seek to provide more sensitive and comprehensive care.
Data from a large epidemiologic survey were examined to determine the relationship of religious practice (worship service attendance), spiritual and religious self-perception, and importance (salience) to depressive symptoms. Data were obtained from 70,884 respondents older than 15 years from the Canadian National Population Health Survey (Wave II, 1996-1997). Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship of the religious/spiritual variables to depressive symptoms while controlling for demographic, social, and health variables. More frequent worship service attendees had significantly fewer depressive symptoms. In contrast, those who stated spiritual values or faith were important or perceived themselves to be spiritual/religious had higher levels of depressive symptoms, even after controlling for potential mediating and confounding factors. It is evident that spirituality/religion has an important effect on depressive symptoms, but this study underscores the complexity of this relationship. Longitudinal studies are needed to help elucidate mechanisms and the order and direction of effects.
