No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

SAMMANFATTNING Bakgrund: Att drabbas av obotlig sjukdom med dödlig prognos kan innebära en tvär förändring i livet. Tidigare forskning visar att patienter har behov av stöd och information kring sitt tillstånd. Känslor som sorg, rädsla, ovisshet, ilska, hopp och förtvivlan kan uppstå. Att bemöta döende patienters känslor och tankar ställer krav på skicklighet och kunskap hos sjuksköterskan. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa döende patienters känslor inför döden, samt hur de hanterar dessa känslor. Metod: En induktiv kvalitativ studie inspirerad av ett hermeneutiskt synsätt, där självbiografier har analyserats enligt Graneheim och Lundmans (2004) manifesta innehållsanalys. Resultat: Resultatet redovisades under två kategorier med tillhörande underkategorier. Kategorin känslor inför döden med underkategorierna rädsla, sorg, tacksamhet, ilska, utsatthet, skuld och skam, samt kategorin hantering av känslor med underkategorierna: acceptans, reflektion, tröst, stöd och hopp. Slutsatser: I studien framkom känslor och känslohantering som beskrevs av informanterna, dessa kunde dock skilja sig markant mellan individerna. Detta innebär att det är essentiellt att se varje patient som en unik individ och inte anta eller på något sätt generalisera dessa känslor eller hanteringen av dem. Vidare kunskap om hur patienter känner inför och hanterar sitt eget döende kan leda till att sjuksköterskor förmår lindra lidande och främja välbefinnande.

Sjuksköterskor på sjukhusavdelningar upplever stress genom höga krav och lågt stöd från arbetsgivaren, låg kontroll över arbetet och stor arbetsbelastning. Syftet med den här studien var att beskriva vilka stressorer som finns hos avdelningssjuksköterskor på sjukhus och vilka copingstrategier de använder för att hantera stressen. Frågeställningar till studien är: Vilka stressorer finns hos sjuksköterskor som arbetar på sjukhus? Vilka copingstrategier använder sjuksköterskor på sjukhus för att hantera stressen? Studiens metod är systematisk litteraturstudie. Analysmetoden är latent innehållsanalys. Totalt inkluderas 14 stycken artiklar i studien. Artiklar söktes i databaser Cinahl+, PubMed och PsycInfo. Resultatet visar bland annat att sjuksköterskor stressas av hög arbetsbelastning, brist på personal, tidspress, omorganisationer och brist på stöd från ledningen. Sjuksköterskorna hanterar stressen genom problemfokuserad coping, känslofokuserad coping och att söka socialt stöd. Slutsatsen i studien är att sjuksköterskor upplever en rad olika stressorer på sjukhusavdelningen. Vilken copingstrategi sjuksköterskan använder sig av är individuellt och är beroende på situationen.

Student Number : 9905625D - MSc dissertation - School of Animal, Plant and Environment Science - Faculty of Science / Stereotypic behaviours are repetitive invariant behaviours that serve no obvious purpose and are common in both domestic and non-domestic captive animals. Stereotypies are regarded as indicators of poor welfare although the growing body of work pertaining to these behaviours has challenged many previously held notions of stereotypy. The most widely accepted, although frequently contested, hypothesis used to explain stereotypies is the coping hypothesis, which states that animals perform stereotypies to cope with the stress of adverse environments. The aim of my study was to investigate the fitness effects of stereotypy, and whether or not environmental enrichment protocols were effective in reducing or eliminating stereotypy in the adult striped mouse Rhabdomys pumilio. Both of these experiments were designed to evaluate the coping hypothesis. I intentionally used wild caught and F1 individuals to eliminate any potential captive selection bias that may exist in extant captive populations that could affect interpretation of fitness. For the first aim, 40 breeding pairs were assigned to one of four treatments: 1) stereotypic female and stereotypic male (S-S); 2) stereotypic female and non-stereotypic male (S-NS); 3) non-stereotypic female and stereotypic male (NS-S); and 4) non-stereotypic female and non-stereotypic male (NS-NS). Compared to non-stereotypic females, stereotypic striped mice females had better reproductive output, including larger litter size, higher growth rate, higher litter survival, shorter interlitter interval and shorter time to first litter. Reproductive success was higher in S-S and S-NS pairs, indicating that genetic and maternal effects jointly determined fitness in striped mice. Unlike other published research, maternal mass was not a predictor of fitness. For the second aim, I housed 20 non-stereotypic and 20 stereotypic striped mice (equal sex ratio) in barren cages for 60 days, and transferred them to enriched cages, and repeated this experiment with striped mice housed initially in enriched cages and transferred to barren cages. While there was a measurable reduction in stereotypy in individuals transferred from barren to enriched environment cages, no increase in stereotypy was noted in striped mice transferred from enriched to barren cages. These findings appear to concur with the coping hypothesis, that stereotypies become perseverative (e.g. bad habits) and difficult to disrupt. Non-stereotypic striped mice were not influenced by the swap. I conclude that the expression of stereotypy is a potential sign of positive welfare and that it may be worthwhile to specifically elicit stereotypic behaviours in order to improve the welfare, and in certain cases, breeding success, of captive animals. Moreover, I maintain that where necessary, effort should be applied to combating stereotypies before they arise, rather than attempting to eliminate them once they have actually developed.

This thesis explores the role of guilt in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and ways of coping with guilt-related thoughts in a clinical sample. The thesis is presented as three papers that include a review of the literature, an empirical research study and critical appraisal of the research process. In the first paper, the author provides a systematic review of 27 studies to determine whether an association exists between guilt and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Guilt remains an associated feature of PTSD; however, how these two constructs might be linked is not fully understood. Therefore the current review further evaluated the evidence for four competing models conceptualising the guilt-PTSD relationship. Overall, trauma-related guilt was positively related to PTSD symptomology even when controlling for depression. Guilt cognitions reflecting self-blame, perceived responsibility and wrongdoing were frequently associated with PTSD symptoms. Few studies found guilt was no longer related to PTSD symptomology when controlling for shame. Future studies ought to control for overlapping or confounding variables and further explore factors that may mediate the guilt-PTSD relationship such as coping. The second paper provided preliminary validation of a newly developed and unique measure of coping with guilty thoughts (GLAMS) in a clinical sample. A total of 67 participants from primary care services completed the GLAMS and measures of distress, guilt, coping and thought control. Eighteen completed the GLAMS and distress measure two weeks later. Overall the GLAMS evidenced moderate to high internal consistency and acceptable to good concurrent validity. Maladaptive subscales were found to be reliable over time. Higher self-punishment was related to greater guilt and distress and more mindful coping was related to a reduction in guilt supporting construct validity. Future research is required to test the stability of the GLAMS factor structure in a larger clinical sample. The GLAMS may have clinical utility in guiding psychological intervention towards more adaptive ways of coping with guilt. It may also provide a suitable outcome measure by monitoring the frequency in which clients engage in maladaptive ways of coping. The final paper provided a critical evaluation and reflection on the research process. Particular reference was made to the research rationale, methodological and ethical issues and considerations were given for future research and clinical practice. Conclusions drawn from this thesis are limited largely by the cross-sectional nature of most of the studies reviewed in paper 1 and insufficient numbers for the empirical study, which due to methodological and service-related constraints, limited further exploration of the data. Factor analysis and subsequent validation of the GLAMS in a larger sample is required to further support inferences drawn.

The main purpose of this series of studies was to investigate the efficacy of attentional coping strategies in altering children's responses to a painful experience. After a review of the theoretical and empirical links between pain experience and attention, Studies 1-4 compared the efficacy of imagery-based strategies that focussed attention away from a painful experience (distraction) or towards a painful experience (sensory-focussing) on 7- to 14-year-old children??s responses to cold-pressor pain. Image calibration studies (Studies 1-2) ensured that the imagery interventions were matched for other important parameters including affect and vividness. Studies 3 and 4 found that imagery-based attentional coping strategies led to increased tolerance of cold-pressor pain relative to a no-treatment control. Study 3 found that younger children (7-9 years) had better pain outcomes when assigned to the distraction condition than the sensory-focussing condition. For older children (10-14 years) the efficacy of different attentional interventions depended on the degree to which the strategy matched the child's preferred use of distraction as a coping style, providing partial support for the congruence hypothesis. Studies 5-6 tested the novel hypothesis that provision of sensory information before a painful experience may enhance the efficacy of an attentional coping strategy such as distraction. In line with self-regulation theory, children who received preparatory sensory information as well as a distraction intervention showed longer pain tolerance, lower pain intensity ratings, and a trend towards less facial pain expressions than if they received either intervention alone. These findings are discussed in terms of key attentional theories, and theories of attentional development. Implications for theory, clinical practice and further research are also considered.

No description available.