Cristina Joseph
Cristina Joseph, of Rehoboth, MA, is a senior nursing major at UNH. She completed her research through the International Research Opportunities Program (IROP) after a part-time job caring for a woman with progressive dementia inspired her to learn how other cultures care for patients with dementia. She says, “I really had no idea what to expect when traveling to Norway. I thought I might be dropped out of a plane and living in the woods in a log cabin. It certainly looked that way when the plane landed….but I quickly learned that I was in a city, and there was plenty to do and plenty of people to socialize with who were my age.” Conducting interviews in English with non-native English speakers did prove to be a challenge, even when the interviewees’ language skills were strong. Cristina also learned that “Qualitative methods can be more difficult than quantitative research. With quantitative research you crunch the numbers and Bam! you have your answer, whereas with qualitative research you are always trying to think, ‘Is this a theme? Have I captured the essence of the experience?’” By publishing her article in Inquiry, Cristina hopes to show other families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that there is a different approach to care than what is found in the United States, and to inspire them to reconsider how to best care for their loved ones. Upon graduating in May 2006, Cristina plans to work in a hospital where she can gain experience in medical-surgical nursing—she hopes that hospital will be in San Francisco.
Gene Harkless
Gene Harkless, DNSC, ARNP, is an associate professor in the nursing department. She is a family nurse practitioner who has taught at UNH for twenty years, focusing her research on evidence-based practice and clinical decision making. Her experience working with a Norwegian nursing colleague on a study of nursing home residents led her to suggest Norway as an interesting place for Cristina to pursue research on dementia. Professor Harkless points out that the outcome of Cristina’s research was not totally unexpected: “The questions she raised in her research left her with many more questions to answer. Now she lives in that uncomfortable professional space of knowing how much we do not know.” Harkless is grateful for “the international scholarly connections that are fostered and nurtured by those involved in the International Research Opportunities Program,” and explains that her respect “for the generosity and helpfulness of the international nursing community continues to deepen.”
Read Cristina Joseph’s research article, “My Mind is Like a Dark Storm Cloud”: Observations and Experiences in Norwegian Dementia Care >>
