Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Explanations Of Risk In Families Without Identified Mutations For Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer, Anne Ersig, Lioness Ayres, D. Hadley, L. Koehly

Lioness Ayres

Purpose: Genetic testing for hereditary forms of cancer does not always identify a causative mutation. Little is known about personal or family response to these indeterminate results when a hereditary form of cancer is suspected. This study explored thoughts about and responses to risk for hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) when a family member has received indeterminate genetic test results. Design: In this qualitative study, data were gathered from index cases who received indeterminate genetic test results through a longitudinal study offering genetic counseling and testing for HNPCC. First-degree relatives of these indeterminate index cases were also invited to participate …

Narratives Of Family Caregiving: Four Story Types, Lioness Ayres

Lioness Ayres

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: This study used a combination of across-case, thematic analysis and within-case, narrative analysis to develop a typology of stories for family caregivers. Both researchers and clinicians can benefit from interpretive methods that offer access s into the processes and products of making meaning though stories. It is often easier to see the possibilities for reinterpretation from outside a story than from within it. It may be that nurses will also be uniquely able to help clients who are in the process of "getting the story straight" to find new, more sustaining meanings and even to live more happily ever …

Defining And Managing Family Caregiving In Chronic Illness: Expectations, Explanations, And Strategies, Lioness Ayres

Lioness Ayres

Study findings identified the process by which caregivers made meaning out of their situations. This process was called the caregiving hermeneutic and consisted of the expectations, explanations, and strategies caregivers used in interpreting caregiving. The study also identified the kinds of meaning caregivers made out of their situations. The resulting four kinds of meaning were called metanarrative types. Metanarrative types consisted of stories of ideal lives, stories of ordinary lives, stories of compromised lives, and stories that were ambiguous. Caregivers who told compromised stories scored higher on measures of tension and depression and lower on measures of esteem for caregiving …

Narratives Of Family Caregiving: The Process Of Making Meaning, Lioness Ayres

Lioness Ayres

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Further research is clearly indicated to measure, rather than just describe, the components of caregivers' expectations, explanations, and strategies. Such research could identify explanations associated with flexible expectations and successful, good quality strategies, as well as provide clinicians with tools to predict those caregivers at risk for difficulty. Knowledge about caregivers could then be incorporated into interventions for caregivers at risk. Nursing interventions could help caregivers discover new expectations, explain their situations more positively, or find new strategies that both provide more satisfaction and are more consistent with good quality care. Nursing research has particular promise in illuminating this …

Health Barriers, Health Perceptions, And Cardiovascular Risk Factors Of Adolescent Black American Males, Desmarie Jackson Decuir

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Area of Investigation: Cardiovascular (CV) diseases are the leading cause of death among Black American adult males. Health behaviors that contribute to CV disease are probably learned during adolescence yet few researchers have studied the factors that influence health promotion behaviors in adolescent Black American males. This study described the health barriers, health perceptions (health self-efficacy and health status), and CV risk factors reported by and the influence of these variables on health promotion behaviors of a sample of Black American adolescent males without known CV disease.

Methods and Procedures: A descriptive correlation study design was used to …

Organizational Characteristics And Restraint Use For Hospitalized Nursing Home Residents., Meg Bourbonniere, Neville E. Strumpf, Lois K. Evans, Greg Maislin

College of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of organizational characteristics on physical restraint use for hospitalized nursing home residents.

DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data obtained between 1994 to 1997 in a prospective phase lag design experiment using an advanced practice nurse (APN) intervention aimed at reducing physical restraint for a group of hospitalized nursing home residents.

SETTING: Eleven medical and surgical units in one 600-bed teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS: One hundred seventy-four nursing home residents aged 61 to 100, hospitalized for a total of 1,085 days.

MEASUREMENTS: Physical restraint use, APN intervention, age, perceived fall risk, behavioral phenomena, perceived treatment interference, mental state, …

Tractor Driving Among Kentucky Farm Youth: Results From The Farm Family Health And Hazard Surveillance Project, Steven R. Browning, Susan C. Westneat, Raeanne Szeluga

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

This article documents the extent of children's involvement in tractor operations among a representative sample of Kentucky children living and working on family farms. Specifically, we describe children's exposures to tractor-related work activities, profile their use of the tractor (number of days worked), and assess compliance with generally recommended safety measures, such as using tractors equipped with ROPS (rollover protective structures), avoiding riding as passengers on tractors, and operating tractors on public roadways. Data for this study were collected in 1994 and 1995 as part of the NIOSH-sponsored Farm Family Health and Hazard Surveillance Project (FFHHSP). Despite recognition in the …

Basics Of Research (Part 6): Quantitative Data Analysis, Cheryl Thompson, Robert Schwartz, Eric Davis, Edward A. Panacek

Journal Articles: College of Nursing

No abstract provided.