Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1990. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-48).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Florida, 2004. / Typescript. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 234 pages. Includes Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Florida, 2004. / Typescript. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 244 pages. Includes Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines the stress and coping behaviors of registered nurses returning to school to pursue a baccalaureate degree in nursing (returning RNs). The sample included 72 volunteers who were returning RNs currently enrolled in a nursing program. Data were collected using the Ways of Coping Checklist and the Personal Strain Questionnaire which assessed the causes of stress related to attending school/ the use of specific coping behaviors, and the effectiveness of those coping behaviors in reducing stress. The major sources of stress included: 1. school-related stressors such as lack of academic skills and concerns with the program and faculty, 2. social and domestic concerns, 3. lack of time, and 4. lack of money. The study concludes that coping strategies used most frequently were also rated as most effective. These coping strategies dealt directly with the stressor or the emotional reaction to it by problem-solving or seeking social support. Coping strategies seldom used and rated as ineffective, on the other hand, avoided dealing with the stressor, for example, by the use of wishful thinking. After an initial term at school, returning RNs, who had not been students for at least two years, had no more distress than returning RNs who had attended school recently. Returning RNs In the fourth year of the program were less stressed by school-specific stressors such as study skills and managing school assignments than were students in the third year. This implies that these students learn to cope with stressors, a process which could perhaps be facilitated through an orientation program. In summary, the majority of returning RNs cope quite well in the present structure by using the strategies of problem-solving and seeking social support. Implications for nursing education are discussed and areas for further research are identified. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to generate a grounded theory explaining the social and psychological processes used by spouses during the waiting period prior to heart transplantation. Theory discovery was accomplished using the grounded theory methodology. Life on Hold was identified as the basic social psychological process generated from the data that explains the responses of spouses during the waiting period prior to heart transplantation. Life on Hold is the process of "tabling" life's activities for an indefinite period of time in order to devote one's life to another person(s) or event. Spouses of heart transplant candidates set aside life's activities and focus all thoughts, actions, and energy on maintaining the life of the candidate until a donor heart is obtained. The process consists of two stages: Freeing Self and Making Life the Transplant. The theory provides a basis for the development of relevant interventions to assist family members to cope with the uncertainty and stress of the transplant experience.

The purpose of this study was to advance knowledge and understanding related to the cognitive response evoked by symptoms in women with rheumatoid arthritis. The mechanisms to achieve this purpose were through: (1) psychometric evaluation of a newly developed instrument: Chronic Fatigue Index (CFI), (2) examining the relationship among the symptoms of RA and components of quality of life for women with RA, and (3) exploring the mechanism by which learned resourcefulness affects the relationship between symptoms and quality of life. The Chronic Fatigue Index (CFI) was evaluated and met minimal levels of reliability and validity. Cronbach alpha reliability estimate for the CFI was.87. Convergent validity was tested through factor analysis. The CFI was found to be a multi-dimensional scale with two distinct factors: chronicity and interference. The factor analytical strategies revealed 46% of the variance in chronic fatigue was supported by these two components. Moderate to strong relationships were found among the symptoms of chronic pain, chronic fatigue, disturbed sleep, and disease flare. To evaluate quality of life in this population a common factor was created through factor analysis. The results of factor analysis revealed three indicators explaining 69% of the variance in quality of life for this population. Chronic pain explained fourteen percent of the variance in learned resourcefulness. The other symptoms and multiplicative terms did not meet the entry criteria. Learned resourcefulness was a weak mediator between the disturbance of chronic pain and quality of life, but successfully moderated the adverse effect of disturbed sleep. Fifty eight percent of the variance in quality of life was explained by the direct path of chronic pain and disturbed sleep on quality of life and the interaction of disturbed sleep and learned resourcefulness. Model respecification suggested that the inclusion of additional variables in the model would increase the explanatory power of the model. The self-regulation framework for symptom appraisal was supported by the findings of this study. Nursing interventions should focus on assisting clients with enhancing their level of learned resourcefulness as it will buffer the adverse effects of the disease process.

Advances in neonatal nursing and medical interventions have made it possible for the very low birth weight (VLBW) infant to survive. However, it is now time to recognize the intangible costs, emotional stress, marital stress, grief, pain, sorrow, and the disruption of the role transition to parenthood. To facilitate progress in the area of neonatal nursing, systematic efforts were undertaken to examine and describe parental adaptation to the VLBW infant and potential risk for parenting problems after hospital discharge. The purpose of this study was to describe parents' method of adaptation to the problems of caring for a VLBW infant at home. Specifically this study was designed to identify: (1) What strategies parents employed during the adaptation process. (2) What resources parents combined with their strategies of adaptation. (3) What situations promoted or inhibited parental adaptation. The informants consisted of parents of VLBW infants (<1500 grams) following hospital discharge. The number of subjects for this study was 14. An exploratory design was used to conduct this study. Each subject was involved in three interview sessions, one months, three months, and five months following hospital discharge of their VLBW infant. Data were sampled theoretically, as guided by the emergent theory. The constant comparative method was used for data analysis. A basic social process, Creating Paths, was identified as the core category of the theory. Creating Paths is the continuous process experienced by parents living with a VLBW infant the first five months after hospital discharge. The process consists of three stages: Gathering, Emerging, and Affirming. Results of this investigation provide a beginning theoretical foundation for assessing the adaptation process of parents with VLBW infants the first five months at home. Neonatal nurses can utilize the model to provide anticipatory guidance and support to benefit parents and their VLBW infant.

The purpose of this study was to test the relationships between and among the concepts of severity of illness, dependency, uncertainty, functional status and the mediators of self-esteem and mastery relative to the outcome of wellbeing. The conceptual framework was adapted from various sources in the literature which support the concept of wellbeing as an important outcome in arthritis. Evidence also supports self-esteem and mastery as mediators of the chronic illness experience. Dependency, uncertainty and functional status have been shown to be predictors of wellbeing but have never been tested as a complete paradigm. The sample for the study was 128 patients with either rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. Subjects completed 7 questionnaires which measured the 7 variables under study. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the demographic characteristics of the sample. Multiple regression technique was used to empirically test the predicted theoretical concepts and to estimate predictive validity for the theoretical concepts. The results demonstrated that when self-esteem was used in the causal model, 58% of the variance in wellbeing was explained by self-esteem and uncertainty. When mastery was included instead of self-esteem 52% of the variance of wellbeing was explained by mastery and uncertainty. When tested as mediators, both self-esteem and mastery emerged as significant mediators of dependency, uncertainty and functional status relative to wellbeing. These results are of clinical use to nurses who, by virtue of working with these patients on a daily basis, are in a position to intervene with actions which encourage positive self-esteem and maintain mastery over the environment. If these actions are successful, then wellbeing can be maintained for those patients diagnosed with arthritis.

Chan, Hoi Sze Gloria. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-241). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract and appendixes also in Chinese.

Resumo: Este estudo objetivou interpretar o significado do primeiro ano de pós- operatório para pessoas com estoma intestinal por câncer colorretal, em seguimento ambulatorial. Utilizamos o referencial teórico da Sociologia da Saúde, que integra ações das pessoas às estruturas sociais em um contexto, com utilização do método etnográfico e análise temática indutiva. Foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade (Parecer no. 184.720 - CEP/EERP-USP) com treze participantes com estoma intestinal por câncer colorretal, no primeiro ano de pós-operatório em um hospital público universitário, em seguimento de controle oncológico. Foram construídas três unidades de sentidos e dois núcleos temáticos. As unidades de sentido \"Adoecimento oncológico: da suspeita à constatação\", \"Gerenciamento do adoecimento e do tratamento oncológico\" e \"Convivendo com o câncer, com a estomia intestinal e com o eu diferente, mostraram a decisão pelo itinerário terapêutico perpassa pelo reconhecimento do acontecimento de algo grave com o corpo destas pessoas, busca pelo sistema profissional de saúde e a luta pela acessibilidade aos exames especializados e dos tratamentos oncológicos, em busca de cura. O gerenciamento das consequências do tratamento cirúrgico como a estomização intestinal e dos tratamentos adjuvantes como a fadiga levam à reflexividade sobre as mudanças do corpo e as repercussões na vida destas pessoas, contrapondo a normalidade anterior e após o adoecimento oncológico, além do enfrentamento do estigma da doença e do estoma intestinal. Contudo, a vida destas pessoas ficou mais restrita aos acontecimentos clínicos e ao contexto de assistência à saúde, às expectativas de respostas aos tratamentos e as possibilidades de recidiva e de metástase, mas com busca de uma normalidade nesta etapa de sobrevivência. Na perspectiva da Reconfiguração do self os dois temas construídos: \"A etapa de sobrevivência da pessoa com estoma intestinal no seguimento oncológico\" e \"Estomização por CCR no primeiro ano de pós-operatório: o eu reconfigurado\", trouxeram os desafios e sofrimentos vividos por estas pessoas na busca pelo direito à acessibilidade ao exame de colonoscopia e aos tratamentos oncológicos, assim como a demanda de suas necessidades de cuidados no período do seguimento de controle e os limites do sistema profissional. O significado do primeiro ano de pós-operatório das pessoas com estoma intestinal por CCR em seguimento oncológico foi construída mediante o Referencial teórico da Reconfiguração do self na perspectiva da Sociologia Compreensiva, considerando as ações e interações destas pessoas para a mediação da experiência de perdas corporais, dos limites e de sofrimentos em decorrência deste câncer, dos resultados com o tratamento oncológico e da estomização, cuja reflexividade sobre o sentido da vida e do viver, culmina o \"eu diferente\", representado por ter câncer e estoma intestinal, em \"eu reconfigurado\", representado pelo processo de estomização por câncer colorretal, ou seja, estas mudam as suas expectativas de cura para expectativas de se manterem vivas por mais um dia / Abstract: This study aimed to interpret the meaning of the first year after surgery for people with intestinal stoma for colorectal cancer. We use the theoretical framework Sociology of health, integrating actions of those social structures in context, using the ethnographic method and inductive thematic analysis. In-depth interviews were conducted (opinion No. 184,720 - CEP/EERP-USP) with thirteen participants with intestinal stoma for colorectal cancer, in the first year after surgery in a public hospital in outpatient follow-up for cancer control. Three units of meaning and two thematic units were built. The sense units \"cancer Illness: from suspicion to finding\", \"Managing illness and cancer treatment\" and \" Living with cancer, with ostomy and with a different me,\", showed the decision by therapeutic itinerary runs through the recognition of a serious event happening with the body of these people, search for professional health system and the struggle for accessibility to specialized tests and cancer treatments, for healing. The management of the consequences of surgical treatment as the intestinal stomatization and adjuvant treatments as fatigue lead to reflexivity about body changes and the impact on the lives of these people, opposed to normal life before and after the illness, cancer beyond the coping of the stigma of the disease and intestinal stoma. However, their lives became more restricted to clinical events and the health care context, the expectations of treatment response and chances of recurrence and metastasis, but with finding a normal life in this survival stage. From the perspective of self Resetting the two themes built: \"A person\'s survival stage with intestinal stoma following cancer\" and \"stomatization by CRC in the first year after surgery: the self reconfigured\", brought the challenges and sufferings experienced by these people searching for the right to accessibility to colonoscopy and cancer treatments, as well as the demand for their care needs in control of follow-up period and limits of the professional system. The meaning of the first year after surgery for people with intestinal stoma by CRC in oncological was built by the Theoretical framework of self reconfiguration in the perspective of Comprehensive Sociology, considering the actions and interactions of these people to the mediation of the experience of bodily losses, the limits and suffering as a result of this cancer, the consequences with the cancer treatment and stomatization whose reflexivity about the meaning of life and living, culminates the \"me different,\" represented by having cancer and intestinal stoma, on \"I reconfigured\" represented by stomatization process colorectal cancer, so, they change their expectations for curing expectations remain alive for another day