Quality of life of adults with acute leukaemia

The cause of acute leukaemia is unknown Untreated, the disease is generally fatal after a few months The therapeutic regimen is chemotherapy, and sometimes also bone marrow transplantation, and the aim is to cure the patient Not only does the person live under pressure from a life-threatening disease with all the physiological complications that therapy can result in, the therapeutic regimen also involves a great psychological effect The concept of quality of life (QOL) is individual for each person, as is his/her experience of the value of the contents of life The principal aim of the study was to describe what QOL means to adults with acute leukaemia, not to describe the degree of QOL The second aim was to give the concept of QOL a theoretical and empirical significance relevant to nursing care Eight adults with diagnosed acute leukaemia detected in adulthood have been interviewed about their quality of life The concept was given one superior dimension in all the interviews, positive attitude to life Below the superior dimension were two further dimensions, interpersonal relationships and autonomy Different qualities were given below these dimensions, viz security, support, respect, information and conversation     

The influence of educational theory on the development of nurse training to education in the United Kingdom

This paper discusses the development of nurse training to education from its historical apprenticeship-style approach to the current position of professional education through diploma-level programmes The influence of education theory on nurse training over the years is explored The slowness of the transition from training to education is shown to have been dependent on the view of what is considered as appropriate preparation for the role Historically, one can see that it was expedient that preparation for the role began as training, and the development to education was thwarted by the lack of resources, the shortage of nurses, and the medical and political ideologies of the day The implementation of Project 2000, with students being supernumerary to the workforce, and the programme being educationally led, created the need for the development of professional education from the traditional training model     

Nurses' attitudes towards older people: a comparison between nurses working in acute medical and acute care of elderly patient settings

Drawing on a sample of 76 nurses from two health authorities working in acute medical or acute care of elderly patient wards, a quantitative approach was taken to compare their attitudes A questionnaire which identified possible predictors of attitude, knowledge about older people (via a modified Palmore's Facts on Ageing Quiz) and attitudinal disposition (via Kogan's Old People Scale) was distributed Results indicated a statistically significant difference ( P =003) in attitudes, with elderly care nurses scoring more favourably Factors which might explain such a finding are identified, namely post-basic gerontological education, age of respondent and knowledge of older people, and their relative influences discussed Conclusions are based on the premise that any variation based on specialist area is unacceptable since care of older people is now within every nurse's remit, and suggested interventions are outlined     

Patients to people

The ideas discussed in this paper are derived from a longitudinal study of student nurse socialization. The emergent views of a cohort of student nurses were explored by the researcher, over a period of 3 years, utilizing the approach referred to as grounded theory. 'Patients to people' represents a continuum of changing perceptions about those whom the students were nursing. It seemed that the cohort had to move along this continuum in order for them to be able to empathize with those they nursed. In the context of the students' changing perceptions, several things were of significance. For example, encounters with individuals who failed to demonstrate the passive and compliant attitude associated with 'typical patients', such as children, challenged the cohort's thinking about those they nursed. During their training the students matured as both nurses and adults and this was also important, as was their recognition of their own 'personhood'. The cohort's emergent views suggested that there was a reciprocity between the way they viewed themselves and the perceptions they held about those they nursed. Such findings are important to people involved in preparing individuals to enter the caring professions. However, it should be noted that the experiences described in this study represent those of 'traditionally' trained rather than of Project 2000 students. The names used to describe people involved in this research are pseudonyms.     

The multifaceted role of the nurse in the day hospital

This paper presents the initial findings from an action research study designed to explore and improve rehabilitation practice in a geriatric day hospital The role of nurses in day hospitals and their contribution to rehabilitation form the focus of the discussion, which emanates from the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 13 members of the multi-disciplinary team, and observation of team meetings and patient reviews Factors which influence the therapeutic activity of nurses are identified and tentative interpretations offered The findings indicate that the nurse's role in day hospitals is multifaceted and varied and the conclusion is drawn that, far from being marginalized in rehabilitative and therapeutic terms, the nurse's central co-ordinating role should be recognized as the lynchpin of day hospital activity     

Attitudes and behaviours of nurses towards the elderly in an acute care setting

The study was designed to determine the attitudes of health care workers towards the elderly in acute care settings and to investigate variations in types of interaction between staff and elderly patients. A questionnaire and Kogan's Old People Scale were used together with direct non-participant observation of nurse-patient interaction. The questionnaire was completed by 50 registered nurses, 20 nursing aides, four degree nurses and eight volunteers. Of the four groups, the volunteers showed the most favourable attitudes, the registered nurses and degree nurses were virtually tied and the nursing aides were lower in the rating. Staff who expressed a preference for working in geriatrics and rehabilitation had a high correlation on the Kogan's Old People Scale: (r(77) = 0.38, P less than 0.01) and (r(77) = 0.32, P less than 0.01) respectively. It was also found that those who rated basic care as lower in importance to patient well-being than, for example, talking to patients, were more positive than were those who rated basic care higher in importance. In the second data collection, 47 female patients (mean age = 67.4 years) and 43 male patients (mean age = 71.5 years) were observed. It was found that 74% of patients spent almost 95% of their time inactively, either in bed or sitting in a chair. Neither age nor mental alertness relates to activity level, but mental alertness was found to be related to engaging in constructive activities. During the observation periods 41% of the patients did not interact with staff.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The effects of training and social orientation on attitudes towards psychiatric treatments

The literature relating to psychiatric nurses' attitudes towards treatment is reviewed and a study reported which (a) compared the attitudes towards treatment of 51 trainee psychiatric nurses at different points in their training (in their first year, in their second year, and in their third year) using the Attitudes to Treatment Questionnaire (ATQ) revised by Caine et al., and (b) investigated the relationship between conservatism/radicalism as measured by the Wilson-Patterson Attitude Inventory (WPAI) and attitudes towards treatment. The results indicated that the groups differed significantly in their attitudes towards treatment, the first year group being significantly less liberal, having a more physical attitude towards treatment, than the second and third year groups. Overall there was no significant correlation between conservatism and attitudes to treatment found. However, there was a highly significant correlation between these two variables for the third year group of students. For this group, higher conservatism scores were associated with less liberal attitudes to treatment. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions made for further research.