The journal of nursing research : JNR
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The purposes of this study were to understand the levels of uncertainty and posttraumatic stress and to examine their relationships in young adult survivors of childhood cancer. A cross-sectional correlational design was used in this study. Mailed survey was the data collection method. ⋯ Uncertainty was positively correlated with posttraumatic stress (r = .40, p = .039). The re- conceptualization of the Uncertainty in Illness Theory (UIT) and developmental perspectives can explain the relationships between uncertainty and posttraumatic stress in the young adult survivors of childhood cancer. The re-conceptualization of UIT can serve as a guide for future studies.
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The role of the acute care nurse practitioner in Taiwan has changed significantly since the 1990s due in significant part to a shortage of interns and resident physicians in acute care settings. The first year of professional practice represents an important transitional year during which new professionals develop their competency to provide high-quality care to hospitalized patients. As the actual experience of individuals undergoing this transitional process into their new role has yet to be fully explored, this research studied and categorized the experiences of acute care nurse practitioners during their first year of role transition under the collaborative model of practice. ⋯ These phases include the role ambiguity, role acquisition, and role implementation phases. Each phase contained a set of sub-themes which describe the multiple dimensions of this experience. This study highlights the experiences, stresses and accomplishments of acute care nurse practitioners during their initial year of advanced practice.
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Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are deemed indispensable due to their importance in promoting positive relationships among employees and involving employees in the organization's activities. OCB is believed to facilitate attainment of a hospital's goals and enhance a hospital's performance. The aim of this study is to extend the work of previous studies by providing an integrated model of OCB and demonstrate its applicability in a non-Western culture. ⋯ Multiple regression analysis was used because it provided estimates of net effects and explanatory power. The results showed that job satisfaction, supervisor support, job involvement, and procedural justices had significant effects on the nurses' citizenship behaviors. Since the study used a non-Western site in one of Taiwan's health care institutions, its overall findings should contribute to further understanding of the cross-cultural aspects of OCB.
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An important issue for the nursing education system in Taiwan is to reinforce nursing education to enhance competence levels for entry to nursing specialties. Consequently, to meet the prospective demands of technical manpower, not only do nursing students in college and vocational schools pursue further studies, but they also take competitive entrance exams. Using a descriptive cross-sectional design, the study examined the following among nursing students in vocational high schools: (1) perception and sources of entrance exam stress and use of coping behaviors; (2) the effect of difference in entrance exam stress levels on coping behaviors used, and (3) measurement of coping function to determine which coping behavior works best for buffering the impact of stress on psychological health during a preparatory stage of a college and university entrance exam. ⋯ Further examination of the interaction effect showed that problem-focused coping behaviors were potentially more adaptive in relation to psychological health at the lower and moderate stress levels (25 - 75%T) than that at the extreme stress level (> 75%T). Conversely, emotion-focused coping had a negative main effect or impairing psychological health. No interaction effect was found between stress perceived and emotion-focused coping used, suggesting that the relationship between emotion-focused coping and psychological distress was consistent across various stress levels.
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Fall risk factors assessment tool: enhancing effectiveness in falls screening.
A quasi-experimental study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of fall prevention among hospital patients based on the modified fall risk factors assessment tool. We investigated the frequency of falls among hospital patients at a medical center in Taiwan. The experimental group of falls victims was selected from patients (n = 39) hospitalized in 2002 after falls. ⋯ In line with our effective tool to screen high-risk patients, we also added the concept of continuous quality improvement in nursing care to implement a fall prevention program to reduce unnecessary injury. This strategy may assist nursing personnel in providing immediate and individualized care as well as health education for high-risk patients. It may also cause the incidence of patient falls in hospitals to continue to decline.