Abstract
Purpose : The purpose of this research was to identify public health nurses' thought processes used in support for setting client's lifestyle improvement goals in specific health guidance. Method : In Survey 1, interviews were held with 19 public health nurses. They described their thoughts on support for client's life style improvement goal at the first time of the specific health guidance. The interview data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by Modified-Grounded Theory Analysis. In Survey 2, 11 public health nurses were divided into 2 groups and each group was interviewed concerning the validity of the analysis results of Survey 1. Based on it, the results of Survey 1 were modified. Results and Discussion : The thinking process of public health nurses was comprised of self-empowerment process consisting of "imagining a client holistically", "sharing health problems with a client", "extracting the desire for lifestyle improvement" and "supporting for setting lifestyle improvement goals" ; and a core process consisting of "having insight into a client's mind" and "considering how to proceed with the interview". It was found that public health nurses regarded the core process as important, especially at the first interview.
