Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Quality of life despite back pain: A phenomenological study
Abstract
The investigator in this phenomenological study examined the lived experience of Quality of Life (QOL) in 15 Registered Nurses (RNs) with chronic back pain (CBP) participating in structured journal writing. Hermeneutic analysis of interviews and journals revealed eight themes under two domains: Making Normal (Fighting and Denying; Being Consumed: Anger and Frustration; Surviving the Three Ds: depression, devastation, and despair; and Choosing, Adapting, and Accepting) and Living with the Shadow (Losses and Limitations, Being Less than Whole, Having Intimate Knowledge, and Living Through Fatigue). The essence of the experience is Dancing with the Shadow: Re-Visioning Quality of Life. The Shadow is the constant presence of CBP in the participants’ lives. The essence involves a delicate dance of control; nurses’ QOL improved when they had control over the CBP.
Subject Area
Nursing
Recommended Citation
Blair, Margaret B, "Quality of life despite back pain: A phenomenological study" (2010). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3427313.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3427313