Book Description

The purpose of this ethnonursing study was to discover, describe, and systematically analyze universal (common) and diverse care meanings and expressions of mothers caring for their children in an urban homeless shelter within a qualitative paradigm. The goal of the research was to discover unknown nursing knowledge regarding cultural influences on the lifeways of family homelessness among African American Appalachian and European American Appalachian mothers. The domain of inquiry was the culture care meanings, expressions, and lifeways of selected African American Appalachian and European American Appalachian mothers caring for their children within the environmental context of an urban homeless shelter. The research was conceptualized within Leininger's Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality. Data collection took place over a six-month period with 12 key participants of Appalachian cultural heritage - 6 African American and 6 European American - and 23 general participants. Observation, participation, and ethnographic interviews were used to collect data in the research context of the participants. A systematic, rigorous, and in-depth data analysis was completed using Leininger's Data Analysis Guide with the four phases of analysis for ethnonursing qualitative research data and the Ethnograph qualitative software program. Evaluation criteria for qualitative research of credibility, confirmability, recurrent patterning, meaning-in-context, redundancy, and saturation were met. Three universal themes, two diverse themes, and two additional findings emerged from the data. Universal care constructs for all mothers were identified, and included culture care as enduring threatening lifeways, being respected, being supported, human connectedness, emotional and spiritual strength, and maintaining hope. Diverse care constructs identified among mothers were culture care as self worth, interdependence, and overcoming suffering. Mother care emerged from the findings as another universal care construct, and meant a mother providing love, nurturance, and discipline to her children, while instilling in them hope for their future. These discoveries, along with Leininger's modes of nursing actions, suggest ways of providing culturally congruent nursing care for African American Appalachian and European American Appalachian mothers caring for their children while experiencing homelessness, in order to promote their health and well-being.