Meaning and normativity in nurse–patient interaction

Abstract It is a fundamental assumption in nursing theory that it is important for nurses to understand how patients think about themselves and the contexts they are in. According to modern theories of hermeneutics, a nurse and a patient must share the same concepts in order to communicate beliefs with the same content. But nurses and patients seldom understand medical concepts in exactly the same way, so how can this communicative aim be achieved in interaction involving medical concepts? The article uses a theory of concepts from recent cognitive science and philosophy of mind to argue that nurses and patients can share medical concepts despite the diversity of understanding. According to this theory, two persons who understand medical language in different ways will nevertheless possess the same medical concepts if they agree about the normative standards for the applications of the concepts. This entails that nurses and patients normally share medical concepts even though patients’ conceptions of disease and illness are formed in idiosyncratic ways by their social and cultural contexts. Several practical implications of this argument are discussed and linked to case studies. One especially important point is that nurses should seek to make patients feel comfortable with deferring to a medical understanding. In many cases, an adequate understanding of patients presupposes that nurses manage to do this. Another implication is that deference‐willingness to normative meaning is not equivalent to the actual application of concepts. Deference‐willingness should rather be thought of as a pre‐communicative attitude that it is possible for patients who are not fully able to communicate to possess. What is important is that nurses and patients have the intention of conforming to the same meaning.     

Using stories to battle unintentional injuries: Narratives in safety and health communication

After 14 years of rising death rates due to unintentional injuries in the U.S., it is time to ask how safety messages can be redesigned to have a greater impact on risky behavior. To this end, many researchers have called for a new, narrative approach to prevention messages—based on persuasive stories about people who have suffered injuries and illnesses in the past. Still, there is scant evidence that story-based communications are more effective than equivalent non-narrative messages at changing actual (rather than self-reported) safety and health behavior. Our research examined the impact of injury stories on actual safety behavior in a controlled experimental setting at a US university. Teams of participants assembled a product (a child's swing) using written instructions. The instructions contained safety messages targeting assembly mistakes that have been linked to serious injuries in children who play on swings. Participant teams were randomly assigned to three conditions: assembly instructions containing story-based safety messages, instructions with concrete (but non-anecdotal) safety messages, and instructions with traditional abstract safety messages. After adjustment for covariates, story-based messages resulted in a 19 percent improvement in safety behavior, compared with non-narrative communications. Importantly, injury stories did not create undue fear of the message object, demonstrating that brief anecdotes about accident victims can convince people to take reasonable precautions without creating unwarranted alarm about risks.     

中美中学生对由父母原因引起的考试焦虑认知研究

目的：比较中国和美国的中学生对由父母原因引起的考试焦虑的认知情况。方法：采用“失败结果预期（FOE）”问卷中的由父母原因引起的考试焦虑12项，测量中美两国公立学校14、15岁的1215名中学生对考试焦虑原因的认知。结果：1．相似认知：两国学生在由父母原因引起的考试焦虑方面有类似的认知，包括父母会担心自己能否进入高一级学校、会让父母烦恼等。2．跨文化的差异：表现为中国学生更多是因为父母责备、辜负了父母期望或会让父母生气而导致考试焦虑；而美国学生更多是由于父母认为他们不能面对生活中的挑战而产生焦虑。3．性别差异：表现在美国的女中学生在7个项目上、中国的男中学生在2个项目上分别比本国异性有更大程度的焦虑（P〈0．05）。结论：中美中学生对由父母原因引起的考试焦虑方面有类似的认知，但存在文化差异和性别差异。     

Development of a new Adolescent Patient-Provider Interaction Scale (APPIS) for youth at risk for STDs/HIV

PurposeAlthough an adult model of patient-provider mutual exchange of information has been proposed, there is no guiding model for adolescents or measurement methodology. Our purpose was to develop a new scale of patient-provider interaction for adolescents accessing reproductive health care and at risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and assess the reliability and validity of the scale.MethodsThe Adolescent Patient-Provider Interaction Scale (APPIS) was developed from the Roter and Hall theory of doctor-patient relationships, previously validated adolescent satisfaction and communication scales, and focus group and individual elicitation interviews. To assess construct validity, the new nine-item APPIS was compared with the satisfaction scale used by the Young Adult Health Care Survey (YAHCS), and Kahn’s Provider Communication Scale. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine convergence across scales, and factor analysis of the APPIS was performed.ResultsThe study recruited 192 African American girls aged 17.9 ± 1.7 years (range 15–21 years) from three sites: a county STD clinic (n = 51), urban adolescent clinic (n = 99), and a family planning clinic (n = 42). Most participants (85%) rated their overall health care highly (≥ 7 on a 10-point scale); 49% felt that both the provider and patient were “in charge” of the visit, and 88% “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that there was an equal “exchange of information” during the visit. The APPIS showed good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .75), and moderate convergence with the six-item YAHCS scale (r = .57, p < .001) and seven-item Kahn scale (r = .48, p < .001). Three factors emerged from exploratory factor analyses, supporting our conceptualization of patient-provider interaction as being multi-dimensional.ConclusionsA new theory-based scale of adolescent patient-provider interaction compares favorably with previous scales of health care satisfaction and communication. The new APPIS may be useful for evaluating approaches to improve health care outcomes for adolescents at-risk for STDs and HIV.     

工频磁场对星形胶质细胞间隙连接通讯功能的影响

目的　探讨工频磁场 (PFMF)是否有促癌或协同促癌作用。方法　利用荧光光漂白后再恢复法观察漂白细胞荧光强度的恢复以判断经间隙连接的细胞间通讯 ,以相对荧光强度恢复速率(CFIRR)作为对细胞间隙连接通讯 (GJIC)作用的评价指标 ,研究不同磁场强度单独作用或协同佛波酯(TPA)对星形胶质细胞GJIC功能的影响。结果　 3ng/mlTPA作用 1h时CFIRR的中位数 (Md)值为4 .53 % /min ,空白对照组为 9.74% /min ,两组的差异有显著性 (H =1 2 .0 84,P <0 .0 0 5)。 0 .8或 1 .6mT磁场作用 2 4h时CFIRR的Md 分别 8.2 5、6 .68% /min ,与空白对照组比较 ,差异无显著性 (H =32 .61 7,P >0 .0 5)。 0 .8或 1 .6mT磁场作用 2 3h ,再与TPA共同作用 1h时CFIRR的Md 分别为 3 .32、2 .85% /min ,与TPA组比较 ,差异无显著性 (H =2 .589,P >0 .0 5)。结论　 0～ 1 .6mT的 50Hz磁场单独作用不能抑制星形胶质细胞GJIC功能 ;协同TPA ,不能增强TPA对星形胶质细胞GJIC的抑制作用 ;但是磁场对星形胶质细胞GJIC的抑制作用随着磁场强度增强呈递增趋势     

Mothers' discrimination of their neonates' cry in relation to cry acoustics: The first week of life

This study investigated the temporal evolution in the discrimination of the newborn's crying by the mother, from the first to the eighth day after birth. The sample included twenty human mothers who had had an uneventful pregnancy, labour and delivery. They were asked to identify the spontaneous cries of their newborn babies from tape-recorded cries containing cries from their own newborn and from three other newborns. On the first day, the percentage of correct answers was 48#pc, then 81 #pc on the eighth day. Two acoustic features that may underlie this discrimination were analyzed: the maximum Fo values and the average number of cry bursts per second. On the seventh day, these two acoustic variables and the discrimination abilities significantly correlate.     

Internet tools in the medical classroom

Summary: The Internet contains a vast amount of medically relevant information. In order to access this information, however, many networks require one to master applications written in UNIX, an operating system considered by many not to be user friendly. Although these tools may be available on the campus, it is difficult to teach their use unless there is some immediate benefit to the already busy user. From that standpoint, it is important for instructors to realize that common UNIX applications can be utilized as classroom tools to significantly enhance the learning experience by facilitating teacher/student communication. Also, whilst the student enjoys greater communication with the instructor (and with other students) he/she is also becoming adept at using information management tools.     

涉外护理专业学生社区毕业实习效果评价

目的 探讨涉外护理专业学生社区毕业实习模式。方法 随机设定实验组(36人),参加慢性疾病调查、建立健康档案和进行相应的健康教育,结束时与不参加社区毕业实习的对照Ⅰ组(31人)、对照Ⅱ组(38人)的实习生同时接受基础知识和能力闭卷测试。然后统计调查问卷和健康档案的正确率,并将三组测试成绩进行比较。结果 实验组调查问卷和健康档案的正确率≥95％。实习生基础知识得分实验组(43.14±2.78)、对照Ⅱ组(42.53±1.96)与对照Ⅰ组(40.65±2.47)比较;能力得分实验组(47.00±2.34)与对照Ⅰ组(41.61±3.41)、对照Ⅱ组(41.42±3.52)比较;总分实验组(90.14±4.30)与对照Ⅰ组(82.26±5.33)、对照Ⅱ组(83.95±4.13)比较,均P<0.01,差异有极显著性意义。结论 社区毕业实习强化了实习生社区护理的基本知识,培养了实习生社区护理的相关能力。但有待于规范化。