title: The experience of feeling unsure for women at end-of-life.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to answer the research question, What is the structure of the lived experience of feeling unsure? The participants were 9 women at end-of-life. The Parse research method, a phenomenological- hermeneutic method, was used to discover the structure of feeling unsure. Through the process of extraction- synthesis three core concepts were identified: disquieting apprehensiveness, pressing on, and intimate sorrows. Thus, the lived experience of feeling unsure for these 9 women is disquieting apprehensiveness arising while pressing on with intimate sorrows. The structure provides knowledge about feeling unsure and its connection to health and quality of life. Feeling unsure will be discussed in relation to the principles and concepts of human becoming and in relation to how it can inform nursing practice and future research.
authors.affiliation: Department Head, South Dakota State University College of Nursing, Brookings, South Dakota, USA.
authors.forename: Sandra Schmidt
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Bunkers
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000786:Anger; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D006117:Grief; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009742:Nursing Theory; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*; D035501:Uncertainty; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*