Background: Respect is essential in healthcare for quality of life of persons across the lifespan, as evidenced in multidisciplinary theoretical works and in research findings from studies of lived experiences of health completed with participants of all ages. Objective: To discover the structure of the lived experience of feeling respected across the lifespan. Method: The Parse research method was used to answer the research question, What is the structure of the lived experience of feeling respected? The processes of the method are dialogical engagement, extraction-synthesis, and heuristic interpretation. A university review board for the protection of human participants approved this study which included 10 participants of all ages from the community who agreed to dialogue with the researcher about their experiences of feeling respected. The audiotaped dialogues were transcribed and dwelled with by the researcher. Stories, essences, and core concepts were extracted and synthesized from the participants’ descriptions. The structure, the answer to the research question, was woven with the human becoming theory and beyond through heuristic interpretation. Results: The finding of this study was: The lived experience of feeling respected is a fortifying assuredness amid potential disregard that emerges with the fulfilling delight of prized alliances. Conclusions: The finding, with its three core concepts, fortifying assuredness amid potential disregard, fulfilling delight, and prized alliances, adds new knowledge to the understanding of feeling respected as a lived experience of health and quality of life across the lifespan. It also expands understanding of the human becoming theory of nursing.
Session #1190 - Life Span
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)