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Uncertainty and Control in the Context of a Category‐Five Tornado
Author(s) -
Afifi Walid A.,
Afifi Tamara D.,
Merrill Annie
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.21613
Subject(s) - tornado , coping (psychology) , feeling , natural disaster , context (archaeology) , psychology , qualitative research , intervention (counseling) , social psychology , applied psychology , sociology , geography , clinical psychology , social science , psychiatry , archaeology , meteorology
The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to illuminate the experience and management of uncertainty during a natural disaster. Interviews were conducted with 26 survivors of a category‐five tornado that entirely demolished the small, rural town of Greensburg, Kansas. Three primary themes were found in the survivors' accounts. First, the survivors experienced rapidly shifting levels and kinds of uncertainty as they proceeded through the stages of the disaster. Second, the fluidity of much‐needed information added to uncertainty. Third, the feeling of lack of control over outcomes of the disaster and its aftermath was pervasive and was often managed through reliance on communal coping. Recommendations for disaster‐related intervention programs are suggested. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.