The purpose of this study was to explore the recovering process of men who had abused alcohol and has lived in a therapeutic community.

Individual in-depth interviews were used to collect data from 10 of these men who has lived in the therapeutic community for more than one year. Qualitative data from field notes and transcribed notes were analyzed using the grounded theory methodology developed by Strauss and Corbin.

The core category about the recovering process of the men who had abused alcohol and are now in the therapeutic community was identified as “reconstructing a broken life”. The recovering process of these men in the therapeutic community consisted of four phases; ‘self-awareness stage’, ‘unfreezing stage’, ‘readjustment stage’, and ‘challenging stage’.

In this study “reconstructing a broken life”, as the core category vividly showed joys and sorrows of men who had abused alcohol and has lived in the recovering process of managing the yoke of life-long disease. In this process of recovery from alcoholic dependence the men gradually adjusted themselves to their given condition. Also they gained coping strategies to care for, and protect themselves. Therefore health care providers can establish supportive programs in the clinical field to empower these men by reflecting their proactive coping strategies.

The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical variables that predict functional and cognitive recovery at 1- and 6-month in both severe and moderate/mild traumatic brain injury patients.

The subjects of this study were 82 traumatically brain-injured patients who were admitted to a Neurological Intensive Care Unit at a university hospital. Potential prognostic factors included were age, motor and pupillary response, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and the presence of intracranial hematoma at admission.

The significant predictors of functional disability in severe traumatic brain injury subjects were, age, systolic blood pressure, the presence of intracranial hematoma, motor response, and heart rate at admission. In moderate/mild traumatic brain injury patients, motor response, abnormal pupil reflex, and heart rate at admission were identified as significant predictors of functional disability. On the other hand, the significant predictors of cognitive ability for severe traumatic brain injury patients were motor response and the presence of intracranial hematoma at admission, whereas those for moderate/mild patients were motor response, pupil reflex, systolic blood pressure at admission, and age.

The results of the present study indicate that the significant predictors of TBI differ according to TBI severity on admission, outcome type, and outcome measurement time. This can be meaningful to critical care nurses for a better understanding on the prediction of brain injury patients. On the other hand, the model used in the present study appeared to produce relatively low explicabilities for functional and cognitive recovery although a direct comparison of our results with those of others is difficult due to differences in outcome definition and validation METHODS: This implies that other clinical variables should be added to the model used in the present study to increase its predicting power for determining functional and cognitive outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to test whether pre-operative visual information and parental presence had positive effects on anxiety, delirium, and pain in pediatric patients who awoke from general anesthesia in a post-surgical stage.

This study used a non equivalent control-group post test design (n=76). Independent variables were provision of pre-operative visual information and parental presence for post-surgical pediatric patients in PACU (post anesthesia care unit). Dependent variables were anxiety, delirium, and pain in the pediatric patients measured three times at 10 minute intervals after extubation in the PACU. Measurements included Numerical Rating Scale for assessing state anxiety, Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium Scale by Sikich & Lerman (2004) for delirium, and Objective Pain Scale by Broadman, Rice & Hannallah (1988) for pain.

Experimental group showed significantly decreased state anxiety at time points-10, 20, and 30 minutes after extubation. Delirium was significantly lower at 10 minutes and 30 minutes after extubation in the experimental group. Pain was significantly lower at 10 minutes after extubation in the experimental group.

The results of this study suggest that this intervention can be a safe pre-operative nursing intervention for post-surgical pediatric patients at PACU.

This study investigated the effects of a recovery education program on rehabilitation motivation, symptoms, and function for schizophrenic patients.

The study employed a quasi-experimental design. Participants for the study were 27 patients with schizophrenia, 14 in the experimental group and the other 13 in the control group. Data were analyzed by using the SPSS/WIN 11.5 program with Fisher's exact test, t-test, and Repeated measures ANOVA.

After a 7 week intervention, participants in the recovery education program group reported increased rehabilitation motivation and function scores, which was significantly different from those in the control group.

A recovery education program was effective improving rehabilitation motivation and function for schizophrenic patients. Therefore, this program is recommended as a rehabilitation strategy for schizophrenic patients.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of recovery from disease in the patients doing a kind of Buddhist meditation, and to develop a grounded theory about meditation.

Data was collected by an in-depth interview using tape-recordings from sixteen participants doing meditation. The data was analyzed using the grounded theory method proposed by Strauss and Corbin(1998).

The core category was discovering the true self. The participants began to do meditation because of their disease. They experienced obstacles due to incomplete religious acceptance. However, their faith grew gradually based on religious experiences that were indescribable. Finally, they entirely trusted the inner healer, which is emphasized in meditation. The strategies that they used were self reflection and seeking help for accepting deep meditation. They were stabilized in physical, psychological and social daily living. The processes of discovering the true self were identified as entering religious discipline, embodying religious discipline, self-accomplishing religious faith, and recovering mind-body health.

This study provided the understanding of mind-body integration. Empirical research may be needed to prove scientifically the effects of meditation.