The Meaning of Grieving for Families Living with AIDS

Abstract

Parse's research method was used to study the meaning of grieving for families living with AIDS. In videotaped dialogues, diverse families living with AIDS described their experiences of grieving in relation to death and other losses. Narratives of the grieving experiences of each family were constructed. Through the process of extraction-synthesis, the structure of grieving was generated. The four concepts within the structure are explicated in this article as essential in family grieving. Further interpretation led to a theoretical structure of grieving within the human becoming belief system. This view of grieving, as a multidimensional rhythmical process of intersubjective becoming, expands and specifies nursing's theory base. The study also confirms that Parse's methodology is valuable for family-centered nursing research.