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Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease, and patients with RA receive services in various settings-for example, in nurse-led follow-up consultations. The present study aimed to investigate how the management of RA in everyday life is expressed in interactions between nurses and women with RA during nursing consultations., Methods: The study was conducted in accordance with constructivist grounded theory, with data based on participant observations and subsequent interviews with 10 women with RA., Results: A core category was developed, "Collaboration through mutual acknowledgement", which documented how the women and nurses confirmed their shared understanding of the content and the structure of the consultation. Three subcategories were identified: (i) "On safe ground", which illustrated that biomedical factors, such as blood test results and pharmacological treatment, structured the basis of the dialogue; (ii) "Venturing forward", which documented how both parties were aware of each other's reactions when the dialogue dealt with women's perspectives of illness in their everyday lives; and (iii) "Gentle steering", which showed that the nurses gently steered the dialogue if the women strayed from the planned content., Conclusions: Both parties agreed that a disease perspective consistent with biomedical factors formed the basis for further dialogue. Subsequently, the women's perspectives on illness were included, and the women felt acknowledged. Therefore, the recommendation is that the consultations start by all parties agreeing on a shared agenda to facilitate the inclusion of the women's perspectives on illness., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Purpose: To explore how women with rheumatoid arthritis manage their illness, motherhood, and work life., Methods: A constructivist, grounded theory approach based on individual interviews and participant observations with 20 women with rheumatoid arthritis who participated in work life and had children living at home or were pregnant. After initial and focused coding Goffman's concepts of social identity were applied., Results: A core category: "Juggling meaningful identities" and three conceptual categories were developed: (1) Work life as the strongest identity marker; (2) Motherhood: a two-sided act; (3) Living with rheumatoid arthritis as an identity? Paid work, motherhood, and illness are linked to the women's social identities. The women construct and change their identities in interactions with children, partners, other parents, colleagues, and employers., Conclusion: The women attribute the highest priority to their professional identity, spending the majority of their time and energy in an effort to appear as "good stable workers". The disease is seen as a hindrance in this regard, and the illness identity is almost completely rejected. In motherhood, the women prioritize close interaction with their children, and deprioritize external activities. Extended outbreaks of the disease and issues regarding the children force the women to deprioritize working life. Implications for rehabilitation Juggling meaningful identities of rheumatoid arthritis, motherhood, and paid work challenge women in managing their everyday lives. Therefore, rehabilitation professionals should support individuals to develop new strategies to manage the challenges they experience regarding juggling motherhood and work ability. Work is a dominant identity marker for women with rheumatoid arthritis therefore, rehabilitation professionals have an important role to play in investigating possible ways for the individual to maintain employment or return to work. Living with rheumatoid arthritis and being a paid worker challenge women's role performance and thereby their identification as mothers. Therefore, rehabilitation professionals have to support the women and their families.

Aims and Objectives: To derive new conceptual understanding about how women with rheumatoid arthritis manage their illness, motherhood and paid work, based on a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge, gained from qualitative studies., Background: Rheumatoid arthritis affects several social aspects of life; however, little is known about how women with rheumatoid arthritis simultaneously manage their illness, motherhood and paid work., Design: Qualitative metasynthesis., Methods: A qualitative metasynthesis informed by Noblit and Hare's meta-ethnography was carried out, based on studies identified by a systematic search in nine databases., Results: Six studies were included. Social interactions in the performance of three interdependent subidentities emerged as an overarching category, with three subcategories: subidentities associated with (1) paid work, (2) motherhood and (3) rheumatoid arthritis. Pressure in managing one of the subidentities could restrict the fulfilment of the others. The subidentities were interpreted as being flexible, situational, contextual and competing. The women strove to construct meaningful subidentities by taking into account feedback obtained in social interactions., Conclusions: The subidentities associated with paid work and motherhood are competing subidentities. Paid work is given the highest priority, followed by motherhood and illness is the least attractive subidentity. Because of the fluctuating nature of the illness, the women constantly reconstruct the three interdependent subidentities., Relevance to Clinical Practice: When healthcare professionals meet a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, they should consider that she might not accept the subidentity as an ill person. Health professionals should not expect that women will prioritise their illness in their everyday life. This could be included in clinical conversation with the women., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)