Balancing on the Edge: Understandings of Hope Amongst Women Experiencing Homelessness
Date
2013-08-19
Authors
Markel, Kim
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Abstract
Women who experience homelessness are faced with a myriad of challenges
and struggles. Compared to women with housing, they endure higher than average
rates of physical illness, mental health challenges, and substance use issues. They
are often victims of physical and sexual violence and are subjected to daily
experiences of deprivation, isolation, powerlessness, and marginalization.
Given the immensity of these struggles, it is essential to better understand
those aspects of their experiences and beliefs that promote endurance and
resilience. Hope is readily acknowledged, across disciplines and across diverse
populations, to be an experience that offers strength to individuals when faced with
difficulty. It is understood to be a key component of well‐being and quality of life
and has been shown to provide protection from despair, grief, and harmful
behaviours.
In this research, women who have recently experienced homelessness were
asked to speak to their unique understanding of hope. The study participants were
also asked to discuss what prevents and supports hope in their lives and finally,
were requested to speak of how registered nurses foster or prevent hope. The
approach used to guide this research was interpretive description. The use of this
approach ensures that the generated knowledge not only addresses the study
research questions but also that the data analysis is contextually placed within the
clinical setting. This study involved interviews with nine women who had
experienced homelessness within the preceding twelve months.
Four major themes and multiple subthemes emerged through the process of
analysis. Three major themes describe the complexity of living with hope for these
women: ‘balancing on the edge’, ‘pushed to the edge’ and ‘pulled from the edge’.
‘Nursing on the edge’ captures the multiple understandings of how registered
nurses impact the experiences of hope and hopelessness. Findings from this
research explicate the unique struggles, strengths, capacities, values, and beliefs of
women who are homeless. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the delicate
balance of hope and how easily, often without thought and attention, registered
nurses can upset this balance. These findings have implications for nursing practice
and nursing education and provide considerations for policy development and
future research.
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Keywords
hope, homeless women, homelessness, nursing