Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0994-4537

Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

School of Nursing

Department

Not Listed

Committee Chair

Roger Carpenter

Committee Co-Chair

Mary Jane Smith

Committee Member

Brad Phillips

Committee Member

Helen Farrar

Abstract

Abstract

Conservative Anabaptists description of delay in health seeking behaviors, comfort in connectedness, and ease in cultural tension when seeking and responding to healthcare

Background: Conservative Anabaptists are a large ethnic religious population that continues to grow in the United States. This includes groups of Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, and Brethren populations residing in rural areas. These groups are known to experience adverse health related outcomes such as community acquired infections, advanced cancer diagnosis, and undiagnosed chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. Therefore, the concept transcending health values has been developed to better understand how conservative anabaptists describe seeking and responding to healthcare.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to (1) gather empirical evidence about the concept of transcending health values (2) use the evidence to contribute to the body of knowledge of nursing. The research question was, “How do Conservative Anabaptists describe the delay in health seeking behaviors, comfort in connectedness, and ease in cultural tension when seeking and responding to healthcare?”

Method: The study used qualitative directed content analysis guided by the core qualities of transcending health values: delay in health seeking behaviors, comfort in connectedness, and ease in cultural tension. Fourteen participants were recruited from a conservative Anabaptists Beachy Amish Mennonite congregation by flyers placed in church mailboxes. To obtain data, two focus groups of 7 individuals each were completed using a semi structured interview script The focus groups were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using directed content analysis by coding based on the three predetermined categories, specific descriptors identified, condensed to meaning unites, and lifted to themes.

Results: Ten themes were derived from predetermined categories. Delay in seeking healthcare is waiting to allow the body to heal itself, following a chain of natural remedies and over the counter medications, seeking guidance from within the community and obtaining medical care only when necessary. Comfort in connectedness is expecting the medical environment to be unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and cold, being unheard and treated like a number, yet desiring to be understood. It is also being open to personal perspectives and ways of thinking by providers and giving time and personal attention to one another. Ease in cultural tension is trusting those who are humble and open, and partnering to share care responsibilities.

Conclusions: Findings from the study were congruent with previous literature about delay in health seeking behaviors, comfort in connectedness, and ease in cultural tension. Findings were also coherent with theoretical and conceptual frameworks and grounded in the discipline of nursing. Implications for future research, practice, and policy include measures to support conservative Anabaptists in receiving culturally competent healthcare and to provide empirical evidence for those caring for this community. Additional studies are needed to further explore transcending health values in other settings and more diverse populations.

Comments

Abstract and heading revisions..

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