Research in nursing & health
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The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between intensive-care nurse burnout and demographic variables. The Maslach Burnout Inventory measured six components of burnout; emotional exhaustion frequency and intensity, depersonalization frequency and intensity, and personal accomplishment frequency and intensity. ⋯ Older age, less than a baccalaureate degree, female, and civilian status described the intensive care nurse who was less prone to burnout. Further study of the relationship between nurses and burnout is required.
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Comparative Study
Stress, coping behaviors, and recommendations for intensive care and medical surgical ward registered nurses.
Forty one intensive care unit and 61 medical surgical ward registered nurses from two large urban teaching hospitals completed a stress questionnaire to examine stress factors, coping behaviors, and recommendations for alleviating stress within the work environment. Stress variables were grouped into five clusters: patient-related, environmental, management-related, interpersonal, and knowledge and skills. Multivariate analysis of variance demonstrated a significant main effect, with the ward nurses perceiving environmental factors as more stressful. Stress factors tend to be related to the overall hospital environment, especially in relation to specific work areas within the institutions.
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This study was designed to describe the level of sound in acute patient care areas. A convenience sample of 25 subjects from four intensive care and two general care units within three hospitals in a large metropolitan area was studied. Continuous decibel levels [dB(A)] and equivalent continuous sound pressure levels [LEQ] were measured for 24 continuous hours. ⋯ Decibel levels generated from equipment reached 90 dB(A) in some instances. Patients' perceptions ranged from content to highly perturbed. Although some sources of noise were not immediately changeable, other were adaptable, preventable, or reducible.
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Comparative Study
Self-report and psychophysiological effects of Lamaze preparation: an analogue of labor pain.
Eighty nulliparous college female undergraduates were cast randomly into a series of eight treatment conditions representing all possible combinations of the three major components of the Lamaze method of childbirth preparation (relaxation training, informative lectures, and breathing exercises). Assessments of the efficacy of these pain coping strategies were subsequently made in the context of a 1-hour session involving twenty 80-second exposures to a laboratory pain stimulus, patterned so as to resemble labor contractions. ⋯ Results of the study indicated that relaxation training comprises the most therapeutically active component of the Lamaze treatment regimen, with significant effects (treatments X trials) on self-reported pain, frontalis EMG, and heart rate. The implications of these findings are discussed from the perspective of designing new, and hopefully more efficacious, methods of preparing women for labor and delivery.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Evaluation of a presurgical group program given at two different times.
This study was designed to test the outcomes of a preoperative teaching program for cholecystectomy patients and to determine the appropriate time to offer the program. The hypotheses were: (a) Patients in a preadmission program will recover better than those in a program given the eve of surgery, and (b) patients in the control group will have a poorer recovery than those in the two experimental groups. ⋯ State-anxiety the eve of surgery and trait-anxiety were the most important variables affecting outcomes. There was a positive and significant linear relationship between pre- and postoperative state-anxiety.