The feasibility of the draw-and-write technique in exploring the resilience of children orphaned by AIDS

Worldwide, researchers routinely study children indirectly through adults who act as proxies for such children. The call for researchers to rather study children directly and adopt less intrusive child-friendly methodologies has become louder. The draw-and-write technique is regarded as a less intrusive child-friendly method of collecting data that can be used for this purpose. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that sought to establish the feasibility of the draw-and-write technique in exploring the resilience of children orphaned by AIDS. This study involved a convenience sample of 23 IsiXhosa-speaking orphaned children aged from 13 to 17. The participants were in grades 6 to 10 and they resided in two child and youth care centres in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. As part of the draw-and-write technique the participants were asked to make drawings of what enabled them to cope with their lives and to write short narratives in which they explained their drawings. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data and this process yielded two main themes, namely: personal protective resources and socio-ecological protective resources. The findings show that complex combinations of personal and socio-ecological resilience resources enabled the resilience of the orphaned children. The findings challenge researchers not to be oblivious to alternative child-friendly methods of research such as the draw-and-write technique when young people are the unit of analysis. The findings of this study have implications for research as well as practice in the field of education and psychology.     

Job hazards and respiratory symptoms in Hispanic female domestic cleaners

Abstract

The occupational hazards and respiratory symptoms of domestic cleaners in USA are largely unknown. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 56 Hispanic female domestic cleaner on their health status and frequency of cleaning products used and tasks performed. While women used multi-use products (60.0%) and toilet bowl cleaners (51.8%) most days of the week, many (39.3%) reported not using personal protective equipment while cleaning. Itchy/watery eyes (61.8%) and itchy nose (56.4%) were the most frequently reported symptoms. A history of physician-diagnosed asthma was reported by 14.3% while 33.9% had symptoms of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR). In conclusion, this vulnerable population has high prevalence of physician-diagnosis asthma and BHR symptoms and is potentially exposed to myriad occupational hazards. Further research exploring associations between products use, cleaning tasks and respiratory symptoms is warranted.     

Definitions of oppression

Definitions of oppression
How we begin to serve others as healthcare professionals and how it is we define underserved and oppressed peoples is important in understanding issues in the organization and allocation of health care. This exploration, based on feminist post-structuralist theory, explores how nurses formulate definitions of 'underserved' and 'vulnerable'. This study goes beyond prescribed definitions to locate meanings used to identify oppression. I present, through an analysis of a literature search, the context and construction of the terms 'vulnerable population' and 'medically underserved'. Professional nursing journals are the source of relevant text. The implications of working with particular understandings of the terms 'vulnerable' and 'underserved' is based on my assumption that healthcare providers need to critically focus on the personal and political meanings they attribute to the labels used to define the clients and communities with whom they work. The presentation of this material supports that the way we define 'vulnerable' and 'underserved' is related to how our work fighting racism, ageism, AIDS, poverty, homophobia, addiction, domestic violence, sexism and colonization is realized.     

Fine particulate matter exposure during pregnancy and infancy and incident asthma

1. Download : Download high-res image (240KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

不同营养支持途径对老年消化道肿瘤病人术后营养免疫状况的影响

目的　比较肠内(enteralnutrion,EN)、肠外营养(parenteralnutrition, PN)联合应用(EN+PN)和单用肠外营养(PN)对老年消化道肿瘤病人术后营养免疫状况的影响。方法　将40例老年消化道肿瘤病人随机分为肠内、肠外营养联合应用(EN+PN)组和肠外营养(PN)组,每组20例。术后第1天开始给予同热量、等氮量的营养支持一周,并检测术前和术后第8天营养指标、免疫指标。结果　两组病人术后第8天的体重均较术前下降,两组间无差异(P>0. 05),两组病人经营养支持后营养指标明显升高, (P<0. 05)。T淋巴细胞亚群在EN+PN组术后8天基本恢复到术前水平,而PN组与术前相比,尚有差异。结论　老年消化道肿瘤病人术后EN+PN或PN都能改善营养及免疫状态,EN+PN在提高机体免疫功能方面优于PN。术后早期EN是安全、可行和有效的。     

Understanding ‘caring’ through biopolitics: the case of nurses under the Nazi regime

These days, discussions of what might be the ‘essence’ or the ‘core’ of nursing and nursing practice sooner or later end in a discussion about the concept of care. Most of the ‘newer’ nursing theories use this concept as a theoretical core concept. Even though these theoretical approaches use the concept of care with very different philosophical foundations and theoretical consistency, they concur in defining care as the essence of nursing and thereby glorify goodness as the decisive characteristic of nursing. These theoretical approaches neglect the fact that nursing is above all a profession with a societal task and is characterized by an asymmetrical power relation between nurses and their patients. Based on the results of a research project that analysed the role nurses played in the killing of psychiatric patients in Germany during the Nazi regime, I demonstrate that an approach based on the concept of care is not able to explain how nurses were able to commit crimes of such atrocity. These crimes were bound to an emotional investment that sustained the production of ‘life unworthy of living’. In the case of nurses under the Nazi regime, certainly a kind of sadism was at issue that can only be explained if we recognize that the social bond is characterized by a certain tension; ‘goodness’ that caring theories assign to the social bond always coexists with the capacity for destruction. Using the Foucauldian theoretical framework of biopower and biopolitics enables one to analyse violence and power as integral parts of nurses' practice. Seen from this perspective, the killing of patients was part of a biopolitical programme and not a relapse into barbarism. The concept of care obscures the political agenda of nursing and does not provide a critical and political framework to analysing nursing practice.     

Relevance of food‐based dietary guidelines to food and nutrition security: A South African perspective

Food‐based dietary guidelines are often developed at country level to assist in bringing dietary intakes closer to nutrient intake goals and, ultimately, to prevent nutrition‐related diseases. However, high food prices, alongside growing inflation, increasingly restrict food choices. This can leave those who are already vulnerable and less well off more exposed to the associated health implications of a nutrient deficient diet. With food and nutrition security being a high priority on the global nutrition agenda, this paper explores the feasibility of food‐based dietary guidelines to assist in improving food and nutrition security, focusing on nutritionally vulnerable groups in South Africa. It is argued that increased food prices, together with population growth, urbanisation and inflation, constrain everyday healthy food choices of a large proportion of South Africans. The South African food‐based dietary guidelines released in 2012 advocate the consumption of a daily diet containing a variety of foods. Unfortunately, even when the most basic and low‐cost food items are selected to make up a recommended daily diet, the associated costs are well out of reach of poor individuals residing in South Africa. The average household income of the poor in South Africa equips many households to procure mainly low‐cost staple foods such as maize meal porridge, with limited added variety. Although the ability to procure enough food to maintain satiety of all family members might categorise them as being food secure, the nutritional limitations of such monotonous diets may have severe implications in terms of their health, development and quality of life. Food‐based dietary guidelines alone have little relevance in such circumstances where financial means limit food choice. Alternative interventions are therefore required to equip the poor to follow recommended healthy diets and to improve individual food intake and nutrition security.     

Access to conception planning information and services for people living with HIV in Ontario,Canada: A community-based research study

Decreased mortality, decreased risk of vertical HIV transmission, and many people living with HIV (PLWHIV) being of reproductive age have led many PLWHIV to consider pregnancy. However, scarce data exist regarding the conception planning resources required and available for PLWHIV to have safe and healthy pregnancies. This study aimed to identify gaps between the need for, knowledge of, and access to conception planning information and services among PLWHIV in Ontario, Canada. PLWHIV from three large and two small urban sites in Ontario were recruited (n?=?63). Participants completed a cross-sectional survey assessing demographics, expectations and plans for conception, and knowledge about and access to existing conception information and services for PLWHIV. Univariate correlations and ranked analyses were used to assess the associations between the need for, knowledge of, and access to conception planning resources with various demographic variables. Participants’ median age was 40 years (interquartile range = 33–45) with 52% being female, 73% identified as heterosexual, and 27% as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, two-spirited, or other. Univariable analysis indicated that male PLWHIV and those from small urban areas were less likely to expect children in the future and less likely to speak to healthcare providers about conception planning. Although 63% of all participants intended to conceive and 44% had a plan for conception in the near future, only 30% had spoken to a healthcare provider about pregnancy and only 30% had some knowledge about conception planning and assisted reproductive services for safer conception for PLWHIV. Knowledge of and access to resources on conception planning for PLWHIV varied by sexual orientation and geographic location in Ontario. Our results show a gap between the need for conception information and knowledge of and access to adequate information and resources among PLWHIV in Ontario, which may impact the psychosocial well-being of PLWHIV and their children.