The Lived Experiences of Folklore Healing Practices as a Health Patterning Modality

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to understand the meaning of folklore as a health patterning modality and to uncover its unique characteristics in the life-health process. Design: Hermeneutic phenomenological. Method: Max van Manen’s methodology was used for this study. The sample was selected from the Afro-Caribbean American community in the United States. The criterion for selection was that participants used folklore healing practices for health and well-being on an ongoing basis. In-depth interviews were done. Purposive sampling with networking was done based on whether the participants used folk healing on a regular basis. Themes of the meaning of folklore healing practices were identified from participants’ verbatim data. Findings: The meaning of folklore healing practices was interpreted as phenomena with six interconnected essential themes. Additionally, Barrett’s nursing theory of power as knowing participation in change was used to reflect and understand the findings from a nursing perspective. Conclusion: The research findings have implications for nursing science, and the knowledge gleaned from the study may be applied to nursing practice.

Power as Knowing Participation in Change

The theory of power as knowing participation in change was derived from Rogers’ science of unitary human beings. Following testing and research of the theory and measurement instrument, a practice methodology was developed and the health patterning practice model was initiated. Further developments of the theory are presented and future speculations are proposed.

Meditation as a Health Patterning Modality in Nursing Practice

Meditation has been practiced throughout the centuries. This article explores meditation as a health patterning modality for nurses to employ for themselves and to facilitate clients' knowing participation in their change process. The theoretical framework for this interpretation is Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings. Meditation has the potential to promote awareness of the experience of flow in the human/environment patterning process. Out of this evolves an expanded awareness of creative potentials for change. Two clinical vignettes are offered to illustrate this process. Summary: Meditation is a health patterning modality that can facilitate knowing participation in change. It broadens awareness of potentials that can be actualized as nurses and clients seek to promote their own health and well-being. Meditation can assist both in experiencing the rhythm of their human/environment mutual process and open them to an expanded field image. According to Rogers, this experiencing is pandimensional, transcending traditionally perceived limitations of space and time. Meditation opens the door onto new and creative potentialities in the process of becoming.