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Biomedical subjects

F M Lewis

Publications and source records attributed to F M Lewis.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

The family's functioning with chronic illness in the mother: the spouse's perspective.

While previous research has studied the impact of chronic illness on the patient or spouse, the impact on the marriage, the child, the parent-child relationship, and the family's functioning have been relatively ignored. To date ther is no known study of the impact of a mother's chronic illness on the family. The purpose of the current exploratory study was to test a set of interrelated hypotheses about family functioning with the mother's chronic illness from the spouse's perspective based on a family systems perspective. Data were obtained from standardized questionnaires from 48 fathers with young school-age children whose wife had either breast cancer, diabetes, or fibrocystic breast disease. Results of a path analysis revealed that the number of illness demands the father experienced was a significant predictor of his level of depression. More demands resulted in higher depression scores. Marital adjustment was significantly affected by both the father's level of depression as well as by his wife's type of disease. Spouses of women with breast cancer had significantly higher levels of marital adjustment than did partners of the other women. More depressed spouses had lower levels of marital adjustment. Both illness demands and level of marital adjustment significantly predicted the type of coping behavior the family used. More frequent illness demands and higher levels of marital adjustment were associated with familial introspection, that is, coping behavior characterized by frequent feedback, reflection, and discussion in the family. The quality of the father-child relationship was significantly affected by this type of coping behavior. Families characterized as introspective had fathers who reported more frequent interchange with their children.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Living with cancer. Family experiences.

The focus of this paper is to describe what it is like to live with cancer from the perspective of families. Recent studies indicate that family members' concerns vary with their roles as family members and patient/nonpatient status. Moreover, concerns vary with stage of illness and time since diagnosis. Not all concerns are shared among all family members. Families influence the adjustment of the person with cancer. Family members cope in different ways, and coping patterns vary with status of the disease and the person's role in the family. Nevertheless, families coping in different ways can achieve similar outcomes.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1982

Closing the gap in quality assurance: A tool for evaluating group leaders.

A commitment to quality assurance means offering a cycle of feedback to those being evaluated. How to meet that commitment was the question asked by the Health Education Department of a large Health Maintenance Organization whose more than 70 facilitators annually provide instruction for over 3,000 enrollees. As part of the multi-faceted endeavor to develop a systematic quality assurance program for the department's offerings, a reliable participant-scored standardized tool had to be constructed. The staff of the department first identified two concepts as critical for quality instruction: interpersonal skills and technical competence. Based on these criteria a 49-item questionnaire was developed and tested during "pre-pilot" and pilot stages. By computer analysis, 27 items with an alpha-reliability coefficient of .94 remained to form the tool the department uses. The development of the evaluation tool and its use are described.

Consumer Behavior↗
PubMed1982

Clarifying autonomy and accountability in nursing service: part 2.

How can a nursing service convincingly argue for autonomy and accountability without an understanding of the precise meanings of these terms? In this second of two articles exploring the meanings and implications of autonomy and accountability in nursing service, Lewis and Batey arrive at this and other provocative questions. They analyze the concept of accountability and provide selected definitions of the concept by directors of nursing. Their discussion provides insights into the presence or absence of true accountability in nursing organizations and presents issues for further study.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1980

Balancing statistical data and clinician judgments in the diagnosis of patient educational needs.

Survey content is necessarily limited by the investigators' foresight and by prior research on their subject of inquiry. Clinical data must supplement statistical data whenever the prior research is insufficient to delineate exactly what problems to expect. The differing perspectives on needs of patients sometimes set up competing demands. This calls for strategies based on a programmatic or population perspective that identifies the commonalities in patients educational needs from the statistical profiles, while at the same time allowing for the development of interventions that provide for as much tailoring of the educational experience based on clinical judgments as possible. By combining the community health education perspective with a clinical perspective, we were able to design interventions that responded to the educational needs of a population of low-income, black hypertensive patients. A needs assessment process that combined these perspectives began with a historical and community assessment of the problem in its most general terms. A second phase focused on the most important behavioral and organizational points for intervention. A third phase required formal assessment of predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors that may be determining the priority behaviors of health care organizational problems. Finally, clinical and administrative judgment sharpened and supplemented the educational interventions that were suggested by statistical data from formal surveys. Behavioral sciences theory was applied usefully in all these phases.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1978

A test of the construct validity of health locus of control: effects on self-reported compliance for hypertensive patients.

A test of the construct validity of the Health Locus of Control (HLC) scale is presented within the larger framework of Rotter's social learning theory. Self-reported compliance behavior was predicted to relate to the subject's HLC orientation, value toward health, and level of perceived home assistance. In a sample of ambulatory hypertensive patients, a significant two-way interaction effect was calculated between the perceived level of home assistance and the patient's HLC orientation (p = .02). The more internally oriented the patient and the higher the level of perceived home assistance in complying with the prescribed medical regimen, the greater the level of self-reported compliance behavior.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral research to enhance adjustment and quality of life among adults with cancer.

The purpose of this article is to recommend future directions for behavioral research to enhance adjustment and quality of life for adults diagnosed with cancer. As context for the recommendations, the domain of behavioral research in psychosocial oncology is briefly described, the state of the science measuring quality of life is summarized, and research results from behavioral research on quality of life are reviewed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗