Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C R Kovach.
Nurses use reminiscence as an intervention with elderly clients to meet a wide variety of needs. Research on reminiscence has provided some support for benefits of reminiscence in maintaining or improving mood, cognitive functioning, life satisfaction, and self-esteem in the elderly. Weaknesses in reminiscence research have been presented along with suggestions for developing a body of knowledge for nursing regarding reminiscence.
1. Cross-sectional studies of age-related changes or developmental patterns contain the inherent confound of age and cohort. 2. Longitudinal studies of age-related changes or developmental patterns contain the inherent confound of age and time-period. 3. Many complex research designs and decision rules have been developed in an attempt to disentangle these confounds. These designs and decision rules are only useful if their assumptions are met. 4. It is important to logically determine when the age, cohort, and time-period confounds discussed in this article are important to resolve in a nursing study and when the confounds do not directly relate to the clinical or theoretical merit of a study.
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Patients and families who have been affected by HD deserve high-quality and dignified nursing care. The complexity and extent of losses and uncertainties imposed by this illness challenge nursing. We have briefly reviewed the current state of knowledge regarding the illness and the nursing interventions appropriate for working with people with HD. What is missing is an empirically validated body of interventions to guide nursing practice. Nursing research is needed to validate existing care practices, generate new interventions, and to begin to build theoretical explanations that assist nurses in providing care to people with Huntington's disease.
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Bathing people with Alzheimer's disease or other dementia is frequently associated with agitated and resistive behaviors. Bathing involves multiple competing stressors, and persons with dementia have a decreased threshold for tolerating stress from the environment. This article provides practical suggestions for decreasing environmental stressors and agitation during the bathing activity. Communicating respect and supporting the dignity of the person are emphasized.
The purpose of this study was to examine agitated behaviors of people with dementia relative to time and activity variables. This descriptive study involved a sample of 420 units of 30-minute time periods collected in a long-term care setting. The highest agitation scores occurred during the evening (F = 3.93, p = 0.009). Agitation scores were significantly higher when the same level of activity was sustained for 1.5 hours or longer (p = 0.000). This study suggests that future examination is needed of an intervention to control activity schedules so that there is a balance between sensory-stimulating and sensory-calming activities.
This descriptive research examined the content of reminiscences of 21 cognitively intact elderly women registered in an adult day-care program. Content analysis of transcripts from a semistructured interview were used to discover categories of reminiscence events and contexts. Three categories of events emerged: activity centered, person centered, and possession centered. This sample reminisced most about activities and least about possessions. The predominant physical contexts of the reminiscences were the everyday places where the reminiscer lived her life: home, school, and workplace. Social contexts that were most predominant were the family, marital unit, and work situation. Socioeconomic status and ethnicity also served as contexts for reminiscence units.