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Biomedical subjects

Cynthia S Jacelon

Publications and source records attributed to Cynthia S Jacelon.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Participant diaries as a source of data in research with older adults.

Solicited participant diaries are an excellent source of data that has not been given sufficient attention as a data collection strategy for qualitative research. In a recent grounded theory study designed to explore strategies used by older adults to manage their chronic health problems, solicited diaries, when combined with an initial and follow-up interview, provided a rich source of data about day-to-day activities of participants. There were three options for maintaining the diary: written, audiotaped, or telephone conversation. The solicited diaries were guided by a set of open-ended questions designed to encourage participants to focus on daily activities and reflect on their values. The authors provide examples of data from participant diaries and suggestions for incorporating solicited participant diaries into data collection strategies for qualitative research.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2005

Case and grounded theory as qualitative research methods.

Case and grounded theory are two methods of qualitative research. Both methods have their roots in sociology and are focused on understanding, explaining, and/or predicting human behavior. They are ideal methods for nursing research, as they are useful for exploring human responses to health problems. The theoretical underpinnings, methodologies, strategies for data collection, requirements for trustworthiness, and examples of research using case and grounded theory are described.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2005

Analyzing qualitative data.

Data analysis in qualitative research is a creative process. As the instrument of data analysis, the researcher explores and reflects on the meaning of the data. In most qualitative traditions, the data analysis phase overlaps the data collection phase. As data analysis proceeds, the researcher moves back and forth between data analysis and data collection in order to create and explain the findings. Using data from the authors' research, common techniques of data analysis in qualitative research are presented.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗
PubMed2005

Not the surgery for a young person: women's experience with vaginal closure surgery for severe prolapse.

INTRODUCTION: Vaginal prolapse can be debilitating, due to pelvic organ prolapse and herniation of the bladder, uterus, intestines and/or support tissues in the vaginal opening. However, there is little published information that documents women's experiences in the months and years after surgery to correct prolapse. OBJECTIVE: This phenomenologic study aimed to increase understanding of the specific experiences that patients report after vaginal closure surgery. METHOD: Participants were recruited via a mailing to surgical patients from a large urogynecologic practice. Semi-structured interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed for analysis. RESULTS: Six women participated in the study. After analyzing the results, five major themes emerged: awareness and confusion, feeling alone in silence, trusting recommendation, acceptance of changed sexuality, and still coping. CONCLUSIONS: This small study shows that vaginal closure affects an intimate body part and can impact self-image, but the women did not regret their changed sexuality. The larger issues for these women were ones of communication, information, and isolation, particularly during their followup care.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

Managing personal integrity: the process of hospitalization for elders.

BACKGROUND: Although, in the United States of America (USA), 40% of people aged 75 years old and older are hospitalized each year, the literature does not provide insight into their perspectives on hospitalization. AIM: The study was designed to illuminate the experience and behaviours of hospitalized elders, discover the meaning of that experience for them, and develop a substantive theory that could explain the social processes in which elders engaged while hospitalized. METHOD: Interviews and participant observation data were used to develop a grounded theory. Participants had to be at least 75 years old, speak English, have been admitted to the hospital for medical (non-surgical) reasons, and be able to give informed consent. The elder, a family member, and a registered nurse caring for the elder were interviewed. Two-hour periods of observation were conducted throughout the elder's hospital stay. Computer-assisted data analysis included open, axial and theoretical coding. Techniques to improve the trustworthiness of the research included persistent observation, participant checking, a peer research support group and an audit conducted by an expert gerontology nurse researcher. FINDINGS: Hospitalization was characterized as a process beginning when an alteration in health is identified and continuing through to the process of adjusting to returning home. Personal integrity was found to be a dynamic, intrinsic quality of the self, composed of health, dignity and autonomy. During hospitalization, elders used strategies to manage their personal integrity. At first, elders focused on strategies relating to health and then moved on to dignity and, finally, autonomy. CONCLUSION: Hospitalized elders choose how they will interact with health care providers and the actions they will take to manage their health, dignity and autonomy. The findings have implications for developing nursing care and for further research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

A concept analysis of dignity for older adults.

BACKGROUND: Human dignity is an essential value of professional nursing education as well as a component of the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics. Nurses are exhorted to treat patients with dignity, and older adults want to be treated with dignity and die with dignity. Although dignity, particularly the dignity of older adults, is often discussed in the health care literature, its meaning is not always clear. AIM: The aim of this paper is to describe a concept analysis to develop a definition of dignity in older adults. METHODS: Data were collected using a literature review and five focus groups composed of older adults. The literature provided data about professionals' ideas of dignity and the focus groups provided qualitative data about the nature of dignity in older people. The literature review and focus groups were carried out concurrently, followed by synthesis of the findings. FINDINGS: Dignity is an inherent characteristic of being human, it can be subjectively felt as an attribute of the self, and is made manifest through behaviour that demonstrates respect for self and others. Dignity must be learned, and an individual's dignity is affected by the treatment received from others. CONCLUSIONS: A behavioural definition of dignity was constructed and this could provide the theoretical basis for nurses to develop interventions that foster dignity for older people.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Older adults and autonomy in acute care: increasing patients' independence and control during hospitalization.

In a grounded theory study of the experience and actions of hospitalized older adults, autonomy emerged as a major focus, particularly during the last phase of hospitalization. Autonomy, defined in the derived theory as older adults' freedom and ability to act on their own behalf, has two components: independence (the physical ability to act) and control (the ability to make decisions on one's own behalf). Being in the hospital threatens the autonomy of older adults. This article describes changes in the autonomy of older adults throughout hospitalization and makes recommendations for improving their autonomy through acute care hospital system redesign.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

The dignity of elders in an acute care hospital.

In a grounded theory study of the social processes engaged in by elderly individuals while hospitalized, dignity arose as one central focus of their strategies. Dignity was found to have two attributes: self-dignity, the individual's sense of self-worth; and interpersonal dignity, that attributed to the elder by others and manifested by the respect they received. Privacy was conceptualized as an interface between the hospitalized elders and staff, visitors, and roommates. The author presents an in-depth discussion of the meaning of dignity for five hospitalized elderly participants for each of three phases of hospitalization. Strategies used by the elders to affect their dignity included making meaning out of interactions with others, adjusting attitude, managing image, managing information, and life reviewing.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2002

Attitudes and behaviors of hospital staff toward elders in an acute care setting.

This study was a grounded-theory approach to the social processes engaged in by elderly people while in the hospital. Staff behaviors were identified along two continua, attitude, which affected the elders' dignity and autonomy, and managing care, which affected the elders' health. Elders described the physicians' role as the director of their health care. The elders characterized the nurses' role to provide their medications and direct needs, whereas the nurses identified their role as providing education and emotional support. Implications and recommendations for practice are offered.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Peer mentoring for tenure-track faculty.

Four tenure-track nursing faculty members at a large, research-intensive university came together to help each other learn the role of faculty scholar and to provide discipline, critique, and collegiality for each other with the goal of building research careers. Peer mentoring is usually construed more as senior faculty mentoring newer faculty. In this model, new faculty members mentor each other based on the knowledge gained in their doctoral programs and through sharing experiences with their own mentors. The value of this strategy includes building relationships among diverse faculty members, creating opportunities for collaboration on research projects, and developing camaraderie among members that might not otherwise develop. One year after implementing this innovative strategy for faculty peer mentoring, group members report success in individual and collective scholarship productivity, more research collaboration, improved mutual expertise, and stronger relationships with each other.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗