Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012
https://hdl.handle.net/2271/1092
Summer 2012 issue2024-03-29T13:37:40ZComplementary Therapy to Relieve Pediatric Cancer Therapy-Related Symptoms in the USA
https://hdl.handle.net/2271/1102
Complementary Therapy to Relieve Pediatric Cancer Therapy-Related Symptoms in the USA
Slaven, Annemarie; Williams, Phoebe D.; Piamjariyakul, Ubolrat
Neuberger, Geri
Children undergoing treatment for cancer often receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy and may experience many symptoms linked to these treatments. This study examined complementary therapies and self-care or dependent-care methods used by pediatric patients and parents to alleviate symptoms during cancer treatments. The specific purposes of this study were to assess symptoms and the complementary therapies and self-care or dependent-care methods used by pediatric patients and parents during cancer treatments. Orem’s self-care/dependent-care concept was used to guide the analysis of the care pediatric patients received. Secondary analysis was done on data collected from a cross-sectional, multi-site study in the Midwestern and Southwestern USA. The sample included 92 parents/children ages 1-17 years old; 52% were females; 16 were less than 5 years old; 53 were 5-11 years old, and 23 were 12-17 years old. Of the cancer diagnoses reported, 56% had leukemia and 44% had other cancer types. The 30-item Therapy-Related Symptom Checklist for Children (TRSC-C) was used to record patients’ symptom occurrence and severity on a 5-pt scale (0, no symptom; 4, “A whole lot”). The Symptom Alleviation: Self-Care Methods (SA:SCM) tool was used to identify methods parents used to alleviate therapy-related symptoms. To address the study purposes, descriptive data and content analyses were conducted. Symptom occurrences of 19 symptoms were reported by 40% or more of the patients and had a mean severity of “2” or “Quite a bit.” The top five symptoms included nausea, feeling sluggish, hair loss, loss of appetite and vomiting. Of the six categories of self-care or dependent-care methods and complementary therapies, four were found useful; herbal treatments were not mentioned. The two categories most utilized were Prescribed Medications and Mind Body Control. Assessing patient-reported and parent-reported symptoms and the use of self-care and dependent-care methods and complementary therapies help parents cope and help their children.
2012-07-24T00:00:00ZChallenges Associated with Partnering with Sudanese Refugee Women in Addressing Their Health Issues
https://hdl.handle.net/2271/1101
Challenges Associated with Partnering with Sudanese Refugee Women in Addressing Their Health Issues
Pauls, Kacie L.; Baird, Martha B.
Neuberger, Geri
Civil war in Sudan has displaced refugees all over the globe. A community-based collaborative action research project (CBCAR) took place over one year between university researchers and southern Sudanese refugee women. The purpose of the study was to define the process of partnering with Sudanese refugee women to address their health needs. CBCAR requires equal participation from researchers and participants and is divided into six cyclical phases: partnership, dialogue, pattern recognition, dialogue on meaning of pattern, transforming insight to action, and reflecting on evolving pattern. Challenges from this project were examined from the perspectives of the researchers and the participants. The main challenges associated with conducting a CBCAR project between researchers and refugee women included: misunderstandings and differing expectations of research outcomes, language barriers, and cultural differences. Despite the challenges, this project led to increased knowledge for participants and researchers and improved health outcomes for the refugee women. This study demonstrates how CBCAR is a useful method to partner with refugees to address their health needs.
2012-07-24T00:00:00ZAssociation Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Postoperative Adverse Events
https://hdl.handle.net/2271/1100
Association Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Postoperative Adverse Events
Nielsenshultz, Yara; Smith, Carol; Bott, Marjorie; Schultz, Mary Pat; Cole, Catherine
Neuberger, Geri
Purpose: Adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) arouse from sleep repeatedly due to hypoxemia and hyerpcapnea. General anesthesia, analgesics, and sedatives may interfere with these arousals and, thus, increase adverse events. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare postoperative recovery scores in adult surgical patients with and without diagnosed OSA. Significant differences in postoperative recovery scores between these groups may suggest an opportunity to improve patient care in the postoperative environment.
Methods: We performed a retrospective electronic data review to compare postoperative recovery scores in two matched cohorts of patients admitted to a large urban medical center between November 2009 and July 2011 for procedures requiring anesthesia. OSA and non-OSA cohorts were matched based on gender, age, and type of surgical procedure. We collected data regarding patients' post-anesthesia recovery scores in four categories: oxygen saturation, respiration rate, blood pressure, and level of consciousness.
Results: Our cohorts included 61 people with an ICD-9 code for OSA and 55 people who did not have an OSA diagnosis. We noted no significant differences in mean post-anesthesia recovery scores between the two cohorts in each of the four categories. We did find a significant difference (p = .05) between the number of assessments the OSA cohort received (M= 5.80, SD = 2.52) and the number of assessments the non-OSA cohort received (M=4.87, SD= 2.62). We also found that the OSA cohort's mean initial scores upon arrival to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) were significantly better for respiration (p = .05) and level of consciousness (p = .03) than were the non-OSA cohort's scores.
Conclusions: While the OSA cohort received better initial recovery scores upon arrival to the post anesthesia care unit (PACU), they had a higher number of assessments overall, indicating that they spent more time on the PACU before discharge. Numerous explanations exist to explain these results, indicating a need for further research.
2012-07-24T00:00:00ZExamining Nurse Leader/Manager-Physician Communication Strategies: A Pilot Study
https://hdl.handle.net/2271/1098
Examining Nurse Leader/Manager-Physician Communication Strategies: A Pilot Study
Jantzen, Michelle; Ford, Debra J.
Neuberger, Geri
A shared goal of all health care providers is to provide safe and quality care (IOM, 1972). In order to provide this there needs to be an understanding of how the communication of that care is delivered (IPEC, 2011). After a literature review we found no existing studies that described specific communication strategies used by nurse leaders to navigate nurse-physician communication and collaboration. Therefore, in this study we sought to gain initial insight from nurse leaders about how they were able to successfully navigate effective communication and collaboration with physicians. This pilot study used a qualitative approach to generate nurse leader/manager-reported strategies, using an interview guide developed from a literature review of the nurse-physician communication and collaboration literature. A convenience sample of six nurse leaders/managers at a large, Midwestern hospital was interviewed. Five themes, teamwork, respect, being direct, building relationships and role modeling were generated from the interview responses that provide initial direction for understanding effective nurse-physician communication.
2012-07-24T00:00:00Z