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Biomedical subjects

J S Murray

Publications and source records attributed to J S Murray.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Understanding sibling adaptation to childhood cancer.

Clinical research conducted over the past 40 years has described adjustment difficulties healthy siblings face when they have a brother or sister with childhood cancer. Research on healthy siblings of children with pediatric malignancies has advanced over the past few years and has broadened from distinguishing psychosocial problems following the patient's death to identifying stressors during the illness experience. More recent research endeavors have focused on recognizing what behaviors or interventions health care providers understand to be most significant in promoting the patient's, parents', and siblings' coping efforts with childhood cancer and its treatment. In addition, descriptive research is exploring interventions used by pediatric oncology health care providers to render social support to siblings of children with cancer (Murray, 1999). Despite the growing body of literature on sibling adaptation to childhood cancer, an understanding of this experience from a developmental perspective is lacking. This lack of theoretical understanding may contribute to inadequate care of siblings of children with cancer. Understanding the meaning cancer has for well siblings is critical. This article discusses the theoretical framework of child development in relation to understanding sibling adaptation to the childhood cancer experience.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Self-concept of siblings of children with cancer.

Childhood cancer can have detrimental effects on the psychosocial well-being of healthy siblings of children with cancer. The limited research done over the past 40 years has identified adjustment difficulties such as poor self-concept, depression, sorrow, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness in children who have a sibling with cancer. To date, clinical research investigating self-concept is scarce as it relates to siblings of children with cancer. The purpose of this study was to examine self-concept in siblings of children with cancer who attended summer camp. A nonprobability purposive sample consisted of 50 school-age siblings of children with cancer. Using the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children (PAIC) to measure children's self-concept, the researcher found that healthy siblings who attended summer camp scored higher on the PAIC than healthy siblings who did not attend camp. This research suggests that social support such as a camp experience may play an important function in coping with having a brother or sister with childhood cancer.

Camping↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The lived experience of childhood cancer: one sibling's perspective.

The demands of cancer on children and their parents have been studied and understood for many years now. However, very little focus has been placed on one other very important part of the family system--the siblings. In the health care profession today, there is a growing awareness that the psychosocial needs of siblings of children with cancer are less adequately met than those of other family members. Research suggests that siblings are particularly vulnerable to adjustment difficulties (depression, anger, anxiety, feelings of guilt, and social isolation), and they experience similar stress to that of the ill child Siblings have been identified as the most emotionally neglected and unhappy of all family members during serious childhood illnesses. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the lived experience of one 14-year-old sibling's experience with childhood cancer. Through the qualitative research process of phenomenology, the researcher gained a greater understanding of the participant's experience and how the childhood cancer experiences affected her and her family. Themes that emerged through the process of content analysis included emotional intensity, increased empathy for others, personal growth, need for support, and desire to help others.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Social support for school-aged siblings of children with cancer: a comparison between parent and sibling perceptions.

This descriptive, exploratory study investigated the social support interventions received by school-aged siblings of children with cancer and which of those interventions are perceived as being helpful. A comparison between the siblings' and parents' perceptions was made. The conceptual framework was guided by House's (1981) work on social support, which includes major categories of support variables including emotional, informational, instrumental, and appraisal support. A nonprobability purposive sample consisted of 50 school-aged siblings of children with cancer and their parents. Subjects completed either the sibling or parent version of the Nurse-Sibling Social Support Questionnaire (NSSSQ). Descriptive statistical analyses were performed to examine NSSSQ helpfulness and frequency scores for both siblings and parents. Paired t tests were used to test the difference between the responses given by siblings and by their parents on the NSSSQ helpfulness and frequency scales. Results demonstrated that siblings perceive interventions aimed at providing emotional and instrumental support as the most helpful. Parents perceived interventions aimed at meeting the siblings' need for emotional and informational support the most beneficial. Parents reported that siblings receive emotional, informational, and appraisal support more frequently than siblings did.

Adult↗
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Pediatric nursing health care delivery plan for humanitarian missions in developing countries.

In today's health care environment, pediatric nurses are being called upon to perform humanitarian missions in tropical developing countries. During these missions, pediatric nurses often are faced with providing short-term health care to children in the villages of the developing countries visited. These efforts involve a group of pediatric health care personnel traveling to a poor, medically underserved area; establishing provisional clinics; and seeing a large number of children over several days. Usually only the most necessary resources are taken along, including varying amounts of medications and supplies and possibly minimal laboratory capabilities. To date, health care delivery plans for pediatric nurses as part of an interdisciplinary team on these missions are unavailable. This article provides literature and experience-based guidance for pediatric nurses performing humanitarian missions around the world in tropical developing countries to provide care in a manner that is safe, appropriate, and offers the greatest likelihood of benefit to the children in these countries.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Halogenated hydrocarbon epoxides: some predictive methods for carcinogenic activity based on electronic mechanisms.

We summarize some of our computational studies (involving an ab initio self-consistent-field molecular orbital procedure) of the reactive properties of halogenated hydrocarbon epoxides. Two of the factors that are believed to determine the carcinogenicities of halogenated olefins and their metabolically produced epoxides are discussed in detail. These are the epoxide's tendency toward oxygen protonation, and its subsequent reactivity. The first of these provides a means for identifying suspect carcinogens, on the basis of our earlier observation that epoxide carcinogenicities are associated with relatively strong negative electrostatic potentials near the oxygens (the protonation sites). With regard to the epoxide's reactivity, optimum carcinogenicity appears to require that this be at an intermediate level. We have investigated the feasibility of using calculated C-O bond orders as measures of reactivity, with encouraging initial results, which suggest that this reactivity requirement may provide a means for ranking the activities of carcinogens.

Calorimetry↗