Abstract
Having courage is inextricably related to the way people make choices about what is important, what to do, and how to go on in life in ways they view as worthwhile. It is a universal lived experience that is important to quality of life. The purposes of this research were to identify the essences of the experience of having courage and to contribute to knowledge about human becoming the nursing theory guiding this study. Participants were ten persons 21 to 64 years of age who were living in the community with spinal cord injuries. They were willing to speak about having courage and to share a symbol, picture, piece of music, poem, or metaphor which was an expression of their lived experience of having courage. The Parse research method for data gathering and analysis a phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used to answer the research question: What is the structure of the lived experience of having courage? The Parse research method illuminates the structure of universal lived experiences of health through the processes of dialogical engagement, extraction-synthesis, and heuristic interpretation. The central finding of this study is the structure: The lived experience of having courage is a fortifying tenacity arising with triumph amid the burdensome, while guarded confidence emerges with the treasured. This structure is comprised of three core concepts fortifying tenacity, triumph amid the burdensome, and guarded confidence with the treasured that reflect the unitary experience of having courage for the participants in this study. Using examples from the participants' descriptions, the findings are discussed in relation to how they enhance understanding about human becoming and in relation to how they can inform future research and practice.
Sigma Membership
Lambda Pi at-Large
Type
Dissertation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Phenomenology
Research Approach
Qualitative Research
Keywords:
Human Becoming, Self Identity, Spinal Cord Injury Patients
Advisor
Rosemarie Rizzo Parse
Degree
PhD
Degree Grantor
Loyola University Chicago
Degree Year
2000
Recommended Citation
Bournes, Debra A., "Having courage: A lived experience of human becoming" (2020). Dissertations. 7.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dissertations/7
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2020-08-14
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 9969101; ProQuest document ID: 304607807. The author still retains copyright.