Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disease of the connective tissues. People with rheumatoid arthritis often experience chronic pain, chronic fatigue and functional impairment for a large apart of their lives. The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is unknown, with three times more women than men being affected. There are many women who live with rheumatoid arthritis throughout much of their adult lives. Women with rheumatoid arthritis face the challenges and stresses of parenting, partnerships, and employment along with the need to cope with a chronic and increasingly debilitating disease.A review of the literature related to rheumatoid arthritis reveals a dearth of qualitative research, with few studies that focus specifically on women even though they constitute a significant percentage of the client group. Little is known from the clients' perspective of what it is like to live with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. This study, a single-participant case study using a phenomenological analysis, explores one woman's' reality of living with rheumatoid arthritis. As this woman's story unfolds, it is revealed how daily living with rheumatoid arthritis had been incorporated into a new way of being-in-the world. Her way of being-in-the-world is such that rheumatoid arthritis is very much a reality, impacting on most aspects of her life. Yet it does not dominate, as she continues with a very full and active life despite this disease

Abstract: It is evident from the prevalence of items in the popular press and incased research by health professional that, over the last two decades, menopause as been discussed more openly. However, medical information is still largely oriented toward menopause as a disease with emphasis on the pharmacological interventions needed to correct the disease. Literature in medical and nursing journals is also predominantly oriented towards menopause as a state of oestrogen, nurse researchers and feminists writers are challenging this viewsThe aim of the research was to discover how women gain knowledge about menopause, and how they make decisions about “managing” their menopause. In the study knowledge was defined as being more than information. It is seen as being more than information. It is seen as understanding derived from synthesis of data about menopause collected from various sources. Eleven women aged 46-55 recruited through a letter in the researcher's local newspaper, were interviewed. The resulting data was analysed by the constant comparison method as used in grounded theory.A descriptive model was developed including the basic social process of “integrating menopause into midlife”. A tertiary level of education and good social support were found to be associated with the women being seekers of knowledge about their menopause. These women, the majority of the participants, revealed themselves as being self-controlling with respect to their menopause. Among the few who had allowed their menopause to be managed by others, if they experienced adverse effects of the treatment, then there was a move toward greater self management.,Generally, nurses were not seen by the participants as possible sources of information. That finding highlights menopause as an area of health education in which nurses have the potential to play a more active role

Abstract: This research project studied the ways in which nurses are educationally prepared for, and responded to, ethical problems in practice. The study involved both descriptive and analytical-interpretive methods that provided information and insights on the given aims of the research. The research findings indicated that nurses were educationally ill prepared in the area of nursing ethics. It also maintained that nurses that nurses were quite able to correctly identify ethical issues in their practice, but felt restrained about their freedom to act autonomously in response to these issues