Clinical nursing research
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Clinical nursing research · Nov 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe preparation of patients for cardiac surgery.
This study examines the impact of a preadmission telephone intervention on anxiety, knowledge, and readiness for discharge for patients attending a preadmission teaching program prior to cardiac surgery. The primary goal of the telephone intervention was to provide support by giving additional information about individual concerns. ⋯ The more anxious group rated their perceived knowledge level lower, despite the fact that both groups had similar scores in actual knowledge. Given the potential barrier that anxiety can pose for patient learning, nurses need to adapt their interventions to deal with the patients' feelings of anxiety that accompany cardiac surgery to make the learning process effective.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of psychosocial variables in the prediction of children's pain intensity following surgery. Forty-two children, ages 7 to 17 years (M = 12.26, SD = 3.06), completed an interview 1 week prior to surgery assessing anticipatory distress related to their forthcoming surgery and history of coping strategy use. ⋯ Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that psychosocial variables added to the prediction of children's postoperative pain after controlling for the influence of surgery-related and demographic variables. These findings lend initial support for the inclusion of psychosocial assessment measures (e.g., anticipatory surgery distress) in the preoperative assessment of pediatric patients who may be at risk for excessive postsurgical pain.
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Clinical nursing research · May 1998
Pain assessment in children with cognitive impairment. An exploration of self-report skills.
Prior to surgery, 47 children (ages 8 to 17) with borderline to profound cognitive impairment were administered tasks to evaluate their understanding of the concepts of magnitude and ordinal position and their abilities to use a 0 to 5 numerical scale to rate pain levels in schematic faces. Of the 111 children (ages 4 to 14) without cognitive impairment, were administered the same tasks. ⋯ Half of the children with cognitive impairment demonstrated skills (magnitude and ordinal position) that may allow them to use simpler pain rating methods. Nurses overestimated the abilities of cognitively impaired children (and younger children without cognitive impairment) to use the rating scale.
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This descriptive study systematically described the quality and intensity of adolescents' pain during the progression of labor. The Gaston-Johansson Pain-o-Meter was administered to 33 adolescents during the three labor phases (2-4 cm, 5-7 cm, and 8-10 cm) following a contraction. The most frequently selected sensory words were cramping in Phase I and pressing in Phases II and III. ⋯ At-test of independent samples found that quality and intensity pain scores for primiparous and multiparous adolescent participants were not significantly different during the progression of labor. The findings of the study illustrate the value of using objective measures, such as the Gaston-Johansson Pain-O-Meter and the Gaston-Johansson Pain-O-Meter Visual Analogue Scale, to assess pain during labor. The study also demonstrated that nurses can use these tools with minimal training.
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The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the reaction of fathers to a stillborn child. Because little research has been done on this topic, an exploratory descriptive study was conducted. Eight fathers who had experienced a stillborn child were interviewed in-depth within the first 5 years following the death. ⋯ The basic social process that the fathers in this study experienced was becoming a father to the stillborn child. The fathers were trying to assume a fathering role while they were grieving the death of their child. Understanding the process of becoming a father to a stillborn child is of value to health care professionals when considering ways to help fathers who have experienced such a loss.