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Biomedical subjects

Janice Penrod

Publications and source records attributed to Janice Penrod.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Focus groups and older adults: Tactics for success.

Factors a nurse clinician should consider when planning focus group size are the number of questions to be posed, depth of responses desired, anticipated "no shows," and time period allotted. Establishing the ground rules for the session and explaining confidentiality expectations are essential starting points for the group. Nurse clinicians are well situated to use focus groups with older adults to explore a number of inquiries, from clinical problems to service utilization. Things to consider when planning focus groups with older adults include length of time the older adult group can participate, seating arrangements that comfortably accommodate individuals with disabilities, and accessible location.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Enhancing methodological clarity: principle-based concept analysis.

AIMS: The aim of this paper is to operationalize the principle-based method of concept analysis. BACKGROUND: While nursing has embraced the use of concept analysis as a valid and significant entree into an area of research, methodological development has created strategies of inquiry that vary in purpose and in the nature of their findings. DISCUSSION: We propose that, as the primary utility of concept analysis is to determine the existing state of the science so that further work may be strategically and appropriately planned, the method described as principle-based concept analysis is superior in providing evidence to support subsequent inquiry into the concept of interest. Three problematic issues are discussed in an effort to clarify and procedurally explicate the strategies employed in this approach: selecting disciplinary literatures for inclusion in the analysis; conceptually-driven sampling issues; and within- and across-discipline analytic techniques. CONCLUSION: In this form of concept analysis, each principle contributes to an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the present state of the concept in the scientific literature. We believe that this perspective will enable nursing to begin to harness the power of concept analysis for advancing science rather than simply imagining what a concept could be or constructing what we believe it should be.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2005

Healthcare providers' perspectives: estimating the impact of chronicity.

PURPOSE: To compare elders' self-ratings of the impact of their chronic conditions with healthcare providers' estimates of the impact of the same conditions on older adults. The effect of length of time in clinical practice and rural or urban clientele on healthcare providers' impact ratings was also explored. DATA SOURCES: A pen-and-paper survey was administered to 122 community-dwelling adults aged 55 years and older, attending health education or exercise programs held by a hospital in a city of approximately 60,000 people. Elders were asked to identify which of 11 common chronic conditions they had and then to rate the impact each condition had on their daily lives. A sample of 290 healthcare providers who are members of the Gerontological Society of America completed a mailed survey asking them to estimate the impact that each of the 11 conditions had on older adults. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare providers consistently overestimated the impact that chronic health conditions had on older adults when compared with the elders' self-ratings of impact. Greater levels of experience were not significantly related to providers' impact ratings of chronic conditions. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurse practitioners, as primary care providers, must understand the impact of chronic conditions on older adults' daily lives in order to provide effective, efficient, and evidence-based health care. This study points to the need for more research to discover why older adults and healthcare providers have such different perspectives on the impact of chronic health conditions.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Concept advancement: Extending science through concept-driven research.

As methods for concept analysis have evolved, scholars have confounded the initial exploration of a concept with techniques for developing the conceptual unit, extending nursing theory, and establishing nursing knowledge. We argue that nursing is at a critical juncture in the methodological development of concept-driven research. In order to maximize the potential contribution of this type of research, approaches to concept analysis must be held separate and distinct from approaches to concept advancement. We advocate the use of principle-based concept analysis to determine appropriate techniques for advancing a concept. Concept advancement refers to strategic concept-driven inquiries that incrementally build the specification of conceptual meaning to a more precisely defined unit of meaning that has greater utility for research application. Examples of a project that employed strategic techniques for concept advancement are used to illustrate the flow of serial small projects.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Concept analysis: examining the state of the science.

As methods for analyzing concepts have proliferated in nursing, a critical methodological issue has arisen. Analytic techniques for examining conceptual meaning have incorporated varied strategies for advancing the concept under the rubric of concept analysis, concept development, and theory building. The authors argue that this evolution has created methodological confusion. Following a discussion of a conceptualization of concepts and concept-theory-truth linkages, methods of concept analysis are critiqued in terms of the purpose and the nature of the findings produced by analyses using both traditional and emergent methods. The authors argue that concept analysis is a process of strategic examination of the scientific literature that results in an integrated perspective of the state of the science, or what is known about the concept. In contrast, concept advancement refers to techniques that emphasize the synthesis of new or deeper knowledge that is relevant to the discipline. The authors conclude that disentangling concept analysis from techniques for concept advancement is critical to enhancing the utility of concept-based research in nursing.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2003

Supporting older adults living with multiple chronic conditions.

This qualitative study was conducted using focus groups to explore the strategies commonly employed by older adults (N = 37) to manage multiple chronic conditions. Key strategies identified were relating with health care providers, medicating, exercising, changing dietary patterns, seeking information, relying on spirituality and/or religion, and engaging in life. Although social support was not mentioned as a discrete strategy, the participants' social networks were embedded in all of the categories. This study supports building a partnership of care in which nurses and other health care professionals function in supportive and educative roles to enhance the older person's lifelong self-care management and ability to stay in control of multiple chronic health conditions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2003

A discussion of chain referral as a method of sampling hard-to-reach populations.

Nursing research often requires inquiry into sensitive topics that involve hidden or hard- to reach populations. However, identifying and sampling these populations for research purposes is often fraught with difficulties. Barriers include society's lack of tolerance of diverse groups, social stigma, concern for issues of confidentiality, and fear of exposure because of possible threats to security. Chain referral sampling techniques are proposed to minimize bias while maintaining privacy and confidentiality. Techniques of chain referral sampling are detailed for use in researching sensitive topics and hidden populations. When carefully planned and executed, this sampling design offers transcultural nurse researchers a reasonable method for accessing and studying special populations that are particularly hard-to-reach.

Humans↗
PubMed2003

Getting funded: writing a successful qualitative small-project proposal.

As a program of research is developed, the small-project grant is a perfect means for initiating discrete projects to build support for larger funding. The author describes the development of a successful small qualitative project proposal on the disabling effects of osteoporosis. She dissects the process of writing a small-project proposal to assist novice or junior researchers in securing funding for small projects that, she hopes, will build toward funding on a larger scale. Major portions of the proposal are included in this article to demonstrate the keys to success in getting small qualitative projects funded.

Female↗
PubMed2003

Concept advancement: enhancing inductive validity.

Enhancing inductive validity while advancing a concept has always been a dilemma for qualitative researchers. This dilemma is paramount for researchers completing a series of small discrete projects all focused on the same concept. How do researchers use knowledge from their earlier research while maintaining an inductive paradigm? Template comparison, a method of sequential triangulation, is proposed as a solution to this problem. Template comparison allows the researcher to use findings from earlier studies, which employed the same or different qualitative methods, as a guide for the data collection, interpretative, and theoretical phases of the new study. The authors' research of the concept of trust is used as an example of the application of template comparison.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2002

Integrating concepts for the development of qualitatively-derived theory.

The development of qualitatively-derived theory (QDT) remains a challenge for researchers wishing to retain the complexity of reality. The techniques of concept integration provide a means to link concepts according to their shared attributes and logically according to their mutual interactions, reactions, and responses. While retaining all of the advantages of qualitative induction, integrating concepts in this manner places QDT theory at the upper end of mid-range theory, or disclosive theory, to produce a theory of higher abstraction and broader scope.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1998

Absolute involvement: the experience of mothers of ventilator-dependent children.

Home care for a technology dependent child is stressful, costly, and time consuming, yet there is little research concerning the maternal caregiver experience. Sixteen mothers whose children required ventilators participated in this study. Using grounded theory methods, 32 interviews were examined to identify the core variable of absolute involvement, describing the provision of a mother's self-determined standard of care for her child. The Model of Absolute Involvement consisted of the attributes of mothering, meeting the demands of caregiving, and employing strategies of care. Implications for nursing practice are discussed in terms of skills and strategies mothers used during day-to-day activity

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Integrating gerontology competencies into graduate nursing programs.

Current demographic and health care utilization trends strongly indicate a rapidly increasing demand for nurses who are well qualified to care for older adults. Advanced practice nurses are positioned to assume leadership roles in geriatric nursing care; however, they must first acquire adequate preparatory education. This article describes two graduate nursing schools' curricular innovations that were funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), through the Geriatric Nursing Education Project: Enhancing Gerontological/Geriatric Nursing for Advanced Practice Nursing. These programs at University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Pennsylvania State University incorporated techniques to translate the Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist Competencies for Older Adult Care [American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2004). Nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist competencies for older adult care. Washington, DC: AACN] into an advanced practice curriculum and developed strategies to sustain curricular innovations. Finally, lessons learned from these two projects are discussed and recommendations are made for integrating geriatric nursing competencies into graduate programs.

Clinical Competence↗