Measuring Peripherality as a Proxy for Autonomous Community Coping Capacity: A Case Study from Bua Province, Fiji Islands, for Improving Climate Change Adaptation

Over the past thirty years, externally-driven interventions for climate-change adaptation in rural Pacific Island contexts have largely failed to be effective or sustained. One reason is that traditional (culturally-grounded) autonomous community coping capacity has been overlooked, many external agencies viewing all such communities as both homogenous and helpless. A community’s autonomous coping capacity can be proxied by peripherality, a measure of the degree to which a particular community in archipelagic (island) countries engages with core agendas. In order to gauge the depth, breadth and efficacy of autonomous coping capacity, three indices of community peripherality were developed from research within thirteen communities in (peripheral-biased) Bua Province in Fiji. Index 1 concerns geography (travel time/cost to town), Index 2 concerns population and employment (community size, age distribution, employment), and Index 3 concerns tradition and global awareness (mobile phones per capita, traditional/western healthcare preferences, inherent coping capacity, diet, water and energy security). Mapping of Indices 1–3 allows the nature of community peripherality in Bua to be captured using a readily-reproducible tool for rapid assessment in similar contexts. It is demonstrated that an understanding of peripherality (as a proxy for autonomous community coping capacity) can inform the design of future interventions for climate-change adaptation.

Suriyeli Bir Aileye Kültürel Özellikleri Doğrultusunda Uygulanan Hemşirelik Bakımı: Olgu Sunumu

Çalışma Suriyeli bir aileyi kültürel özelliklerine göre değerlendirerek hemşirelik bakımı vermek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Çalışma Ordu ili Altınordu İlçesi’nde yaşayan Suriyeli bir aile üzerinde Ocak-Şubat 2015 tarihleri arasında yürütülmüştür. Aile haftada bir kez olmak üzere araştırma süresince 8 kez ev ziyareti ile izlenmiştir. Verilerin toplanmasında araştırmacılar tarafından hazırlanan “Veri Toplama Formu” ve “Hemşirelik Bakımında Kültürel Özellikleri Tanılama Rehberi” kullanılmıştır. Ailenin dili Arapça olduğu için veri toplama formları tercüman yardımıyla doldurulmuştur. Aile kültürel özelliklerine göre değerlendirilmiş ve NANDA’ya göre hemşirelik tanıları konularak bakım verilmiştir. Bu tanılar; güçsüzlük, bilgi eksikliği, sağlığı sürdürmede etkisizlik, yorgunluk, ümitsizlik, relokasyon/taşınma stresi, yalnızlık riski, sosyal etkileşimde bozulma, aile içi süreçlerin devamlılığında bozulma ve etkisiz toplumsal baş etmedir. Uygulanan hemşirelik bakımı sonucunda; bilgi eksikliği, aile içi süreçlerin devamlılığında bozulma, etkisiz toplumsal baş etme, güçsüzlük, ümitsizlik, sosyal etkileşimde bozulma, yalnızlık riski ve relokasyon/taşınma stresi tanılarında düzelme olmuştur. Bu sonuçlar doğrultusunda, göç eden ailelerin kültürel özelliklerine göre değerlendirilerek hemşirelik bakımı verilmesi önerilmektedir.ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHNursing Care Provided to a Syrian Family According to Cultural Characteristics: Case ReportThis study was conducted to understand provision of nursing care by assessing a Syrian family’s cultural characteristics. The study was carried out with a Syrian family living in Altınordu town in Ordu province between January and February 2015. The family was monitored with home visits once a week and for a total of eight times during the study. The data were collected by a “Data Collection Form” prepared by the researchers and consulting the “Guide for Identifying Cultural Characteristics in Nursing Care”. Since the family’s native language was Arabic, data collection forms were filled in with the help of a translator. The family was assessed in terms of cultural characteristics and care was provided by making diagnoses according to NANDA. These diagnoses were powerlessness, lack of information, ineffective health maintenance, fatigue, hopelessness, relocation/moving stress, risk for loneliness, impaired social interaction, interrupted family processes and ineffective community coping. As a result of the nursing care provided, improvements occurred in the diagnoses of lack of information, interrupted family processes, ineffective community coping, powerlessness, hopelessness, impaired social interaction, risk for loneliness and relocation/moving stress. In line with these results, it is recommended that nursing care should be provided by assessing migrating family’s cultural characteristics.