Situation Specific Theories: Development, Utilization, and Evaluation in Nursing

Dr. Eun-Ok Im, PhD, MPH, RN, CNS, FAAN, is Senior Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Edith Folsom Honeycutt Endowed Chair, and Professor of Nursing at Emory University. She has gained national and international recognition as a methodologist and theorist in international cross-cultural women's health through more than 400 papers, abstracts, and chapters (over 200 refereed journal articles) and over 300 international and national multi-disciplinary presentations. Dr. Im has been on more than 50 research review panels of the NIH, and is also a reviewer for the PCORI and the American Heart Association. Dr. Im is a senior editor of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing, is on the editorial boards of 8 journals including the Advances in Nursing Science and the Research in Nursing and Health, and is on 13 editorial review boards. Also, she has been on the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) Advisory Council, and she was selected as one of the 2019 NINR Director's lecturers. She has numerous national and international awards, one of which is the 2014 International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame Award from the Sigma Theta Tau International.  Dr. Im's program of research can be described as feminist-driven Internet research on gender and ethnic differences in health/illness experience of midlife women. Dr. Im's doctoral research and post-doctoral study in 1990s mainly focused on international cross-cultural women's health research. She integrated Internet research methodology as an area of expertise with research projects on breast cancer survivorship, cancer pain, menopausal symptoms, and physical activity as the principal investigator through a series of NIH-funded, R01 awards. Over the past 25 years, she has obtained about 17.5 million dollars of research funding through R01s (4 R01s as the PI) and other grants. Dr. Im is also well known as an originator of situation specific theories with Dr. Afaf Meleis.
Dr. Afaf Ibrahim Meleis is a Professor of Nursing and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing and Director of the School's WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership from 2002 through 2014. This followed her 34-year tenure as a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and Los Angeles.Dr. Meleis is an internationally renowned nurse scientist and medical sociologist. Over the course of 5 decades her scholarly contributions have informed generations of nurses around the world and influenced their education, practice and research programs. Her writings and research have advanced knowledge in global health, women's health, culturally competent practice, interprofessional education and the epistemological analysis of the discipline of nursing. Much of her life's work has been dedicated to uncovering the experiences and the voices of vulnerable women who are burdened by societal inequities, multiplicity of roles, differential compensation and rewards, and the gender divide. She used this knowledge to redefine women's work and contributions and to develop Transitions Theory, which is used globally and is translated into policy, research and evidence-based practice.
Dr. Meleis is the author of more than 200 articles published in peer reviewed, interdisciplinary and international journals. She is also the author of 50 chapters, 7 books, and numerous monographs, proceedings and policy papers. Her books continue to be used nationally and internationally, chief among them, Transitions Theory: Middle Range and Situation Specific Theories in Research and Practice and several editions of the ground-breaking Theoretical Nursing: Development and Progress, with a 6th edition expected to be published in 2017. Her co-edited book, "Women's Health and the World's Cities", innovatively examines the relationsh

Historical Background for Theories: Revisiting the Past to Create the Future.- Situation-Specific Theories: Philosophical Roots, Properties, and Approach.- Equity and Social Justice in Developing Theories.- Middle Range Theories and Situation Specific Theories: Similarities and Differences.- Development of Situation-specific Theories.- Situation Specific Theories from the Middle Range Transitions Theory.- Maintaining hope in transition: critical to the work of all nurses.- A Situation-Specific Theory of Korean Immigrant Women's Menopausal Transition.- A Situation-Specific Theory of Migration Transition for Migrant Farmworker Women.- Crisis Emergencies for Individuals with Severe Persistent Mental Illnesses: A situation-specific theory.- A Situation Specific Theory of Heart Failure Self-Care.- Child Self-Care Nursing Theory in Japan.- Moving Beyond Dwelling in Suffering: A Situation-Specific Theory of Men's Healing from Childhood Maltreatment.- The Situation-Specific Theory of Caregiver Contributions to Heart Failur Self-Care.- A situation-specific theory about professional role identify formation as related to role clarity and nurse work.- A Situation Specific Theory of Dining Supports for Life Enhancement at Welfare Facilities for Seniors in Japan.- A Revised Situation-Specific Theory of Breast/Chest Feeding.- A situation-specific theory about HIV-related fatigue.- Development of a Situation-Specific Theory of Cervical Cancer Prevention Behaviors of Malawian Women.- A situation-specific theory: Health-related quality of life in South Korean older adults with type 2 diabetes (HIKOD).- The Status Quo of Situation Specific Theories.- The current status of theory evaluation in nursing.- For Future Development of Situation Specific Theories.- Nursing Theory of the Future: Situation-Specific Theories.