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Biomedical subjects

D Sands

Publications and source records attributed to D Sands.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Infection in artificial blood pump implantation.

Infection has been observed in artificial heart experimentation to be of early onset and generally within the first 2 postoperative weeks. The organisms most often detected in blood cultures were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae, E. coli and Enterococcus, all of which are intestinal species. Contamination is thus thought to be the most plausible cause of perioperative infection. Absolute sterility must be maintained in animal care areas and blood access to these animals is to be minimized. Although prompt selection of a proper antibiotic therapy is essential, the eradication of infection maintains a poor prognosis. The time course of fibrinogen levels is a reliable index to determine the onset of infection.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Competence-building in adolescents, Part I: A self-help nursing intervention.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a self-help nursing intervention on adolescent psychosocial competence. A community sample of 139 adolescents was assigned to three conditions (intervention, delayed intervention, and control) within a pretest-posttest design. The self-help nursing intervention was a 9-page, 14-step self-help workbook for use by adolescents in dealing with upsetting situations in day-to-day living. After a self-assessment of coping, subsequent workbook steps aided adolescents in developing alternate coping responses and generating other ways to deal with the upsetting situation. Adolescents in the three conditions did not differ on pretest measures of psychosocial competence: problem-solving appraisal, adolescent self-perception, and general self-efficacy. After statistically controlling for pretest scores, gender, and age, the intervention group showed more favorable self-perceptions in scholastic competence, social acceptance, and conduct/morality compared with the control group. However, expected differences in the delayed intervention group failed to appear. Thus, anticipated benefits in psychosocial competence were found inconsistently. Although not predicted, significant reductions in the prevalence of negative affect occurred among adolescents in both intervention groups. Overall, the self-help format for delivering psychosocial competence training lacked the power needed to bring about consistent benefits for adolescents. Testing the self-help workbook in a group context is recommended in future nursing intervention research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Competence-building in adolescents, Part II: Community intervention for survivors of peer suicide.

Nurses often encounter situations in which they are called upon to assist in post-suicide community interventions with teachers, church youth group leaders, and mental health professionals. Controlled studies of interventions to aid adolescents coping with the loss of a peer are lacking. The purpose of this study, conditioned by an unanticipated suicide in an ongoing research study, was to document changes in psychosocial competence of adolescent peer suicide survivors. Following a supportive community intervention, the peer survivor group was compared with a similar group of adolescents who did not experience peer suicide. Both groups were in the control condition of a larger nursing study of social competence-building. The survivor group had significantly greater self-efficacy immediately after the community intervention and 2 months later when contrasted with the comparison group. In addition, the survivor group reported greater social acceptance and job competence immediately after the community intervention. Correlated t-tests showed the survivor group had significant gains in problem-solving appraisal and global self-worth after the community intervention, but significant declines in global self-worth and scholastic competence 2 months after the intervention. The findings support the belief that community interventions are initially worthwhile in helping adolescents to cope with peer suicide, but continued supportive intervention may be needed to offset declines noted over time in areas such as self-worth and academics.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Collaborative research--the Arizona experience.

A far-sighted collaborative proposal for research development was created by one author (Dr. Sands) for the College of Nursing, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona and 24 participating nursing service divisions located in surrounding central Arizona hospitals and health care agencies. With subsequent funding from the Division of Nursing an innovative, hands-on continuing education sequence of research minicourses was presented in repeated 20-week cycles at seven locations. The method was successful in establishing an ongoing, research-productive network of nurse faculty and nurse clinicians who continue to work together and use one another's special areas of research expertise.

Arizona↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Development of a scale to measure barriers to health promotion activities among persons with disabilities.

Subjectively-defined barriers to engaging in health promoting activities are one of the most important, yet least well operationalized, components in our models of health promotion. This article describes the development of a tool to measure barriers to health promotion among persons with disabilities. The Barriers to Health Activities among Disabled Persons scale (BHADP) is comprised of 16 items reflecting barriers to taking care of one's health identified from previous barriers literature and interviews with disabled persons. In a study of 135 disabled adults living in two southwestern cities, the BHADP yielded a Cronbach Alpha of .82 as a measure of internal consistency reliability. In addition, t-test analyses demonstrated a significant difference in scores between the disabled sample and a comparison group of 144 nondisabled adults, suggesting the BHADP discriminate between these groups. The BHADP may be useful in sensitizing health care providers to the wide range of barriers experienced by persons with disabilities, thereby enabling them to work more effectively with this special population.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Analysis of mutations in the CFTR gene in patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in Poland].

Polish CF patients were screened extensively for mutations in the CFTR gene. Screening data demonstrated a high heterogeneity of CFTR mutations in the Polish population. Total 30 different mutations were characterised in 24 exons or introns of the gene. Among them, six mutations have been reported for the first time and submitted to the CF Genetic Analysis Consortium. In addition, 15 different polymorphisms were found, including three new ones. The screening resulted in 9% increase of the detection rate of CFTR alleles in the tested population. Frequencies of two of the identified mutations (CFTRdele2,3 and 2184insA) are relatively high (2.6% and 1%, respectively) and justify their inclusion into routinely screened mutations in genetic testing of Polish CF population.

Cystic Fibrosis↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Responses to chronic illness: analysis of psychological and physiological adaptation.

The Adaptation Nursing Model provided the theoretical framework for the comparative analysis of psychological and physiologic adaptation of 211 adults representing three diagnostic groups (rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, and multiple sclerosis). Data were collected through interviews and completion of the Mental Health Index, Health-Related Hardiness Scale, and Margin in Life. Psychological adaptation was found to be independent of diagnosis. Four predictor variables (health promotion activities, psychological distress, physiologic adaptation, and dependence on medications) significantly discriminated among the three groups and correctly classified 73.08% of the total sample. Presence of the hardiness characteristic was significantly related to psychological and physiologic adaptation, involvement in health promotion activities, and participation in patient education programs. It can be concluded that a diagnosis-specific view of psychological status is not tenable or clinically meaningful.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Determinants of health promotion activities in nursing clinic clients.

Nursing clinic clients' health beliefs, values, and demographic characteristics were analyzed for their impact on health promotion activities. A sample of 175 clients was administered measures of health beliefs, health values, and health promotion activities. The type of health care clients had requested at the clinic for the previous 2 years was categorized as health promotion, illness prevention, health maintenance, or health restoration. Findings included: health value was not related to self-reported health promotion activities or to types of clinic visits; a strong belief in chance was negatively associated with engaging in health promotion activities; a strong belief in powerful others was negatively associated with a high percentage of restoration visits. The combination of beliefs, values, and selected demographic factors accounted for 16% of the variance in health promotion activities and 18% of the variance in the type of health care sought.

Adolescent↗