Objective In Taiwan, traditional Chinese Medical Nursing is in the beginning stage. However, traditional Chinese Medical Nursing Profession has not a certain position. Also, the relative studies were few published. The purpose of this study was to explore perception of traditional Chinese Medicine nursing profession among traditional Chinese Medicine nurses in Taiwan. Design This qualitative study used the in-depth interview and moderate participant observation to collect data. Population, Sample, Setting, Years Subjects were recruited from two traditional Chinese Medicine Hospitals. Fifteen volunteers agreed to participate in this research from January to May 2002. Interviews were conducted at the conference room in the hospital and interview place was quiet and private enough to encourage the nurses to feel comfortable to talk openly. Concept Traditional Chinese Medicine Nurses, Perception, traditional Chinese Medicine nursing profession. Methods The length of every interview was 60 to 80 minutes and audiotape. All of the tape-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim to maintain data integrity and to reduce the perceptual bias. The transcripts were approached by content analysis on the processes suggested by Miles and Huberman. Findings The results show that the perception would be divided into 5 themes, including,the assistant role of traditional Chinese Medicine doctor; blur concept of traditional Chinese Medical nursing profession;less practice of educational training courses,uncertainty toward the future development, and lacking the ability and resource of research. Conclusions The limitation of independent function leads to not only that traditional Chinese Medicine nurses regard their job as;not a professional work, but also confine the development of traditional Chinese Medicine Nursing. Implication The finding will apply in the clinical traditional Chinese Medical Nursing and will assist in design of traditional Chinese Medical Nursing training program or courses. Moreover, it will be the reference of nursing policy.
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Back to 14th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
10-12 July 2003