Clinical nursing research
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Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with no known etiology, cure, prognosis, or clear diagnostic criteria. This interpretive descriptive study was focused on the experience of living with FM. ⋯ Participants believe that people with FM would benefit if more health care professionals, as well as family and friends, would validate their condition and provide them with better support. More research could clarify ways in which health care providers may provide more effective interventions, appropriate care, and ongoing support for those affected with FM.
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Delirium is a frequent syndrome among patients who are elderly. People who are older with cognitive impairment who are institutionalized are at increased risk of developing delirium when hospitalized. In addition, their prior cognitive impairment makes detecting their delirium a challenge. ⋯ The results showed that the prevalence of delirium increased according to the severity of the patients' prior cognitive impairment. Except for disorganized thinking, all symptoms of delirium were similar among patients with mild, moderate, and severe prior cognitive impairment. The study concluded that training nurses to recognize subtle changes in mental status among those patients who were older with prior cognitive impairment may prevent the underdetection of delirium.
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This project described prospectively obese, critically ill patients and the resources critical care nurses used to care for these challenging patients. It also examined the relationship between resources used by nurses and patient outcomes, including complications and length of stay. Forty-three participants were enrolled. ⋯ The most common equipment used was a specialty bed or mattress; the most common complications were related to the pulmonary system. Initial use of multiple resources may indicate a patient at risk for adverse outcomes. Nurses can use findings to anticipate care needs and develop interventions, such as optimal positioning, to avoid adverse outcomes.
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Clinical nursing research · Aug 2005
Mediators of the relationship between hope and well-being in older adults.
This research examined well-being in relationship to the variables of hope, spirituality, and state anxiety using a cross-sectional correlation design to test two mediation models. The convenience sample of 130 older adults, mostly women, between the ages of 60 and 89, completed the Demographic Data Sheet and the Index of Well-Being, the Herth Hope Index, the Spiritual Perspective Scale, and the state anxiety portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. ⋯ A statistically significant and negative correlation was found between hope and state anxiety and between state anxiety and well-being. Multiple regression analyses results indicated that neither spirituality nor state anxiety functioned as a mediator in the relationship between hope and well-being.
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In this study, the internal position of a nasogastric/orogastric tube was determined in 72 children, prior to an abdominal radiograph, by measuring CO2 and pH and bilirubin of tube aspirate. Fifteen of the 72 tubes (20.8%) were incorrectly placed on radiograph. ⋯ In this study, using an algorithm of assuming stomach placement if the pH of aspirate is < or = 5 and obtaining an abdominal radiograph when either no aspirate is obtained or the pH is >5 would have resulted in 92% accuracy. Alternatively, obtaining an abdominal radiograph would result in nearly 100% accuracy.