Issues in mental health nursing
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Jun 2007
Sleep disturbance, fatigue, and stress among Chinese-American parents with ICU hospitalized infants.
The purpose of this study is to describe Chinese-American parents' sleep disturbances and fatigue in relation to their stress levels, resulting from the hospitalization of their infants in intensive care units (ICUs). Four sets of data were collected: (1) Parents' demographic data and infant's medical records; (2) Subjective sleep data gathered from the General Sleep Disturbance Scale, from sleep diary descriptions, and objective sleep data from wrist actigraphy recordings; (3) Fatigue severity from the Numerical Rating Scale-Fatigue; and (4) Data from the Parental Stressor Scale: Infant Hospitalization. A majority of the mothers (93%) and fathers (60%) experienced sleep problems after their infants were admitted to the ICU. ⋯ Findings from this preliminary study demonstrate significant relationships among parents' perceived stress, impaired sleep, and fatigue severity during the infant's hospitalization period. Findings suggest implications for education of both ICU parents and staffs. This study could be replicated with a bigger sample size to further examine the relationships between parental stress and well-being.
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · May 2007
The influence of culture on immigrant women's mental health care experiences from the perspectives of health care providers.
It is well documented that serious mental health problems such as depression, schizophrenia, and post migration stress disorders exist among immigrant women. Informed by Kleinman's explanatory model, this qualitative exploratory study was conducted with seven health care providers who provided mental health services to immigrant women. ⋯ The study also revealed that cultural background exerts both positive and negative influences on how immigrant women seek mental health care. We suggest that although cultural knowledge and practices influence immigrant women's coping choices and strategies, awareness of social and economic differences among diverse groups of immigrant women is necessary to improve the accessibility of mental health care for immigrant women.
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Aging continues to be an important topic of study. For many older adults, the elder years can be a challenging, if not difficult, time. Creativity interventions have been shown to positively affect mental and physiological health indicators. ⋯ While many activities are those typically thought of as creative, such as painting, there are also a number of useful interventions that are not traditionally identified as creative ones, but that are, in fact, creative activities. This paper describes recent work with creativity in older adults, including research and clinical projects, and earlier works that could be refined as creative interventions. Recommendations for further investigation of creativity also are presented.
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Jan 2007
College students' perspective on smoking cessation: "If the message doesn't speak to me, I don't hear it".
The purpose of this study was to document the smoking cessation experiences of three groups of 18-24-year-old college students and explore their ideas for cessation. Focus group interviews were conducted with former smokers (n = 7), smokers struggling to quit (n = 7), and smokers with no desire to quit (n = 5). ⋯ Students indicated that cost and convenience were important considerations for smoking cessation programs. They stated that the media messages were for teens and older adults and did not relate to them as college students or young adults.