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Biomedical subjects

D V Cicchetti

Publications and source records attributed to D V Cicchetti.

96 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Nurses' use of palliative care practices in the acute care setting.

This study examines the reported use of palliative care practices by nurses caring for terminally ill patients in the acute care setting. Randomly selected nurses (n = 180) from six randomly selected hospitals in Connecticut completed a self-administered questionnaire. Factors associated with use of palliative care practices were examined by using bivariate and multivariate analyses. Most nurses surveyed (88.5%) reported using palliative care practices when caring for their terminally ill patients. Factors associated with greater use included greater knowledge about hospice, having practiced nursing for less than 10 years, and having had hospice training in the past 5 years. A substantial proportion of nurses reported that they never discuss hospice (51.7 per cent of nurses) and prognosis (26.6 per cent of nurses) with their terminally ill patients. Educational preparation (bachelor's degree versus less education) was not associated with greater use of palliative care practices. Palliative care practices are commonly used by nurses in the acute care setting. However, many report having limited training and substantial gaps in knowledge about hospice among this group of nurses, suggesting greater attention to palliative care and hospice may be warranted in nursing educational programs.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of alexithymia in posttraumatic stress disorder and somatic illness: introduction of a reliable measure.

The authors examined ratings on four scales of alexithymia in 45 patients in four groups: Vietnam veterans in inpatient (Inpt-PTSD) or outpatient (Outpt-PTSD) treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), patients on a medical service with somatic illnesses that have been the subject of psychosomatic research (Somatic), and a comparison group of psychiatric inpatients with a diagnosis of affective disorder (Affective). The data suggest a greater degree of alexithymia in the Inpt-PTSD and Somatic samples than in the Affective patients. In addition, the Inpt-PTSD and Somatic groups exhibited a similar degree of alexithymia. This study also introduces a novel measure of alexithymia, the Alexithymia Provoked Response Questionnaire (APRQ), which showed a high degree of interrater reliability and a greater degree of correlation with the Beth Israel Psychosomatic Questionnaire (BIPQ) than a MMPI subscale or the Schalling-Sifneos scale.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of observer variability in the classification of human cataracts.

An in vitro cataract classification system was developed in our laboratories and used to demonstrate a relationship between sustained aspirin intake and the apparent deceleration or retardation of human cataract formation. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the reliability of this cataract classification schema. Sets of extracted human cataractous lenses, which had been photographed in vitro, were randomly assigned to five observers. The task was to classify the lenses on the basis of nuclear and cortical involvement, as reflected in color and area changes along five groupings. Assessments were made on the basis of both intraobserver and interobserver agreement levels, corrected for chance (weighted kappa values). All five examiners evidenced levels of intraobserver agreement which ranged between "Good" and "Fair" and "Excellent" (.46-.83). Each of the five observers was ranked on the basis of his agreement levels with the remaining four observers. The results followed a predictable pattern such that the more experienced the observer in classifying cataracts, the more consistent his rankings vis-à-vis the remaining four evaluators. These results are discussed in the general context of observer variability studies in the field of medicine.

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