Western journal of nursing research
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Fifty caregivers and 41 heart failure patients participated in a study examining the association of caregiver characteristics and the caregiving environment on caregiver burden. Using a cross-sectional design, caregivers were interviewed face-to-face using a caregiver characteristic/demographic tool designed for this study, the Centers for Epidemiological Studies Short Depression Scale, the Caregiver Reaction Assessment questionnaire, and the New York Heart Association Functional Classification Guide to obtain the caregiver's perception of patient disease severity. ⋯ Fifty-one percent of the variance in caregiver burden was accounted for by the variables caregiver advanced age, higher caregiver hours, more caregiver physical health problems, higher levels of caregiver depressive symptoms, and more patient comorbidities. This article concludes with implications for nursing practice and future research.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Methodological issues in explaining maternal outcomes: anesthesia provider characterizations and resource variation.
Anesthesia provider models were characterized based on responsibilities and technique privileges and the distribution of clinical resource and process variables using a survey of 1,135 hospitals offering obstetric care in eight representative states. The resulting models were then analyzed by resource availability. ⋯ Traditional characterizations of provider fail to capture differences in technique privileges. Clinical resource variables and the scope of technique privileges should be included in the study of anesthesia provider credentials on outcomes.
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This article examines the relationship between nurse burnout and patient safety indicators, including both safety perceptions and reporting behavior. Based on the Conservation of Resources model of stress and burnout, it is predicted that burnout will negatively affect both patient safety perceptions and perceived likelihood of reporting events. ⋯ Burnout was not associated with event-reporting behavior but was negatively associated with reporting of mistakes that did not lead to adverse events. The findings extend previous research on the relationship between burnout and patient outcomes and offer avenues for future research on how nurse motivation resources are invested in light of their stressful work environment.
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Comparative Study
A comparison of two pain measures for Asian American cancer patients.
Although two of the most commonly used multidimensional pain scales are the McGill Pain Questionnaire-Short Form (MPQ-SF) and the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF), little psychometric analysis of these tools has been done among ethnic minority populations. This study evaluates and compares psychometric properties of these scales among 119 Asian American cancer patients. Cronbach's alphas of the MPQ-SF and BPI-SF are high (alpha = .85 to .97). ⋯ Two factors are extracted for both instruments. Correlations between pain scores and the usage of pain medications are low for the MPQ-SF ( r = .23 to .33) and moderate for the BPI-SF (r = .40 to .42). Results indicate that among Asian Americans, both pain scales are internally consistent, some items in each are redundant, and the BPI-SF is more valid than the MPQ-SF.
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Health service delivery in the operating theater is vulnerable to shortages because of the unique environment, post-registration training requirements, and the occupational subculture that characterizes social relations. The aim of this mini-ethnography is to explore characteristics of organizational culture of the operating theater and how this culture is communicated and sustained. The field setting is an eight-theater department in a major hospital in Queensland, Australia. ⋯ Three themes related to primacy of knowledge and competence, social order, and situational control are important cultural indicators in this highly specialized milieu. The level to which members are able to assimilate and meet role expectations depends on the amount of knowledge and experience they possess. A lack of acceptance has the potential to affect members' willingness to continue working in the operating theater, and consequently, may contribute to existing nursing shortages in this specialty.