PURPOSE
Experience of chest pain may be different in women from that of men and this discrepancy may cause misdiagnosis of angina contribute to mortality by this disease in women. The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of chest pain and responses to the symptoms in women.
METHOD
A content analysis was conducted with interviewed data obtained from women who underwent the treadmill test RESULT: Seven major categories were identified from this content analysis: attributes of chest pain; accompanied symptoms; precipitating factors; relief strategies; family support; communication with physicians; and effects of chest pain on their lives. Characteristics of pain were described as heaviness, tightness, heating sensation, tearing, and others. Duration and intensity of pain varied in a wide range. Radiating pain presented in 9 patients, and the locations of radiation were throat, neck, shoulder arm and fingers. Women tended not to respond actively to their chest pain, and didn't get appropriate support either from their family or from their physicians when they reported chest pain.
CONCLUSION
Women express non-typical as well as typical patterns of pain when they experience chest pain. Clinicians have to consider the variability of symptoms when they assess women with suspicions of angina.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this research was to describe how nurses in intensive care units (ICU) work.
METHOD
A total of 18 ICU nurses participated in the research. The data was collected through individual in-depth interviews and analyzed by grounded theory method using NUDIST 4.0 software program.
RESULTS
Three different patterns regarding nursing performance among ICU nurses were identified. These are 1) nursing performance of nurses who perform excellently, 2) nursing performance of nurses who do not perform well because of their lack of experience, and 3) nursing performance of nurses who do not perform well in spite of their good years of experience. These three different nursing performances were described in terms of seven different categories; 1) assessing and monitoring nursing problems, 2) clinical decision making, 3) interpersonal relationships, 4) holistic care, 5) technical skills, 6) problem solving, 7) working independently and creatively. This study also identified two intervening factors that influenced the advancement of their expertise.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study might help nurse managers in developing continuing educational programs for inexperienced nurses or those nurses not performing well to become experts by a deeper understanding of the nature of nursing performance and the factors that influence nursing performance in ICU settings.

The purpose of this study was to understand how living-related kidney donors experience to donate a kidney using the Grounded Theory method. Total of 11 kidney donors were participated in the study. Semi-structured individual interviews were utilized to gather data. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Constant comparative analysis was employed using the NUDIST4.0 software program. As a result of analysis "process of decision making" was identified as a core category and the process consists of three stages; the initial, the intermediary, and the last stages. Ten subcategories emerged as important in this process; 1) preceding factors, 2) direct factors, 3) indirect factors, 4) donor characteristics I, 5) wish to give (a kidney), 6) motives and momentums to donate, 7) interfering factors, 8) facilitating factors, 9) donor characteristics II and the 10) final decision to donate. During the initial stage, the donors recognize their wish to give a kidney to the recipient, and the first five subcategories were related to this stage. The intermediary stage is an action stage which involves taking the tests of tissue compatibility with the recipient. The next four categories were related to the intermediary stage. The last stage starts when the donors finally decide to donate a kidney and ends with the operation. The results of this study highlight difficulties and problems, as well as motives and other facilitating factors that people experience to donate a living-related kidney. The results of this study might help nurses and other health care workers make effective interventions to facilitate the decision making process for living-related kidney donors. They might also help in establishing appropriate standards and criteria for the psychosocial aspects of living-related kidney donations.

No abstract available.