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The recent expansion of focus within medicine to include palliative care has created a new corps of professionals who fulfill a role that might be considered antithetical to their profession. This new medical role calls for individuals who have personality characteristics that will allow them to constantly face death. This study was concerned with examining, in Adlerian life style terms, the personality characteristics of one segment of that corps--the hospice home care nurse. The subjects used in this study represent the population of nurses (N = 6) who provide the care within the framework of the home care program of Hillhaven Hospice of Tucson. A structured interview was held by the researcher at which time the subjects responded to each of the items on the Life Style Interview Guide. Three experts trained in Adlerian psychology and life style interpretation collectively analyzed each life style in order to arrive at a life style summary for each nurse as well as a composite summary. The results of this study showed a high degree of similarity and consistency with regard to attitudes, personality characteristics and life style themes of the hospice home care nurses studied.

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This study investigates levels and sources of stress, coping, and spiritual wellbeing of a sample of nurses. It also examines the relationship between these \ ariables. The sample is drawn from three public hospitals. The Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) measures the sources and levels of stress while the revised Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) measures coping. The Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (SWBS) measures the spirituality of the sample. The study found that nurses are moderately affected by all the stressors measured by the NSS. It also found that nurses use emotion as well as problem-focused coping. Spiritual wellbeing was found to be high and may explain why nurses experience moderate stress levels. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

The purpose of the study was to explore barriers hospital nurses perceive in the care of AIDS or HIV positive patients. According to the Center for Disease Control, the total number of AIDS cases reported in the United States as of December 1991 was 206,392. The Center for Disease Control reported of the known AIDS cases in the United States 59% have resulted in death.A grounded theory approach was used in the study of sixteen nurses working with AIDS patients in a medical surgical area of the hospital. Results of the study showed nurses had a need to maintain self integrity. All barriers found as a result of the study related to the nurses need to maintain self integrity. Barriers found as a result of the study include the following: fear of contagion, family concerns, fear of the unknown, issues in confidentiality, issues in universal precautions, and emotional and spiritual aspects. / School of Nursing

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceived anxiety experienced by coronary care nurses working eight- and 12-hour work shifts. It was hypothesized that length of shift work affects the before- and after-shift anxiety for nurses working eight- or 12-hour work shifts. Anxiety differences between the eight- and 12-hour work shifts were examined as well as differences between the before- and after-shift anxiety for each length of shift.Thirty-two (32) coronary care nurses from a general medical and surgical hospital in the Midwest volunteered to participate in the research. The sample consisted of all females (18 Registered Nurses, nine Licensed Practical Nurses, three charge nurses, a supervisory nurse, and a rehabilitation nurse). The nurses had voluntarily selected the eight- or 12-hour length of shift work and understood that they would be committed towork that shift for one year. Twelve nurses worked the eight-hour shift; 20 nurses chose the new 12-hour shift.The State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) was used to measure the nurses' before- and after-shift anxiety. Baseline data were collected from the nurses prior to the initiation of the 12-hour shift. The Box-Jenkins Time Series Analysis was used to analyze the daily before- and after-shift anxiety scores and to establish a forecasted trend for both the eight- and 12-hour shifts.The first finding was that the before-shift anxiety scores for the eight-hour workers declined, while the anxiety scores for the 12-hour workers increased, following the implementation of the 12-hour shift. The same trend was forecast for the after-shift anxiety scores. The eight-hour nurses' after-shift anxiety scores declined while the 12-hour nurses' anxiety scores increased. A transfer function was conducted for both the eight-hour and 12-hour before- and after-shift anxiety scores. No predictive trend could be established for the eight-hour anxiety scores; however, the 12-hour after-shift anxiety scores were found to be consistently higher than before-shift anxiety scores. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / The purpose of this study was to establish whether a cognitive intervention with patients in an intensive care unit in a general hospital would lead to a decrease in the commonly observed "intensive-care syndrome", which previously led to a deterioration in patients’ condition irrespective of their physiological condition. In order to effect this study an intervention focused at the alleviation of cognitive factors possibly causing the intensive care syndrome was constructed and rendered on audio-tape. An experimental and control group were randomly selected and pre-tests were performed on these groups. After the pre-tests were performed, the cognitive intervention was applied and post-tests on the same measures were performed. The results were subjected to separate analysis of covariance where baseline levels of the dependent variables were used as covariates. No significant results were found, implying that cognitive factors might not be playing the role they were expected to play, and that organic-physiological factors might play a more important role in the causation of the intensive-care sydrome. In addition, it was hypothesised that patients used their own "cognitive intervention" in order to alleviate the severity of symptoms observed in the intensive care unit. Further research is suggested in order to determine the relevant factors inherent in such a condition.