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Biomedical subjects

K Buhler-Wilkerson

Publications and source records attributed to K Buhler-Wilkerson.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

The impact of posthospital home care on patients with cancer.

Symptom distress, mental health status, enforced social dependency and health perceptions were measured in two groups of cancer patients, one receiving home care services (n = 49) and the other receiving no such services (n = 11). Data were obtained at hospital discharge and 3 months later. Patients receiving home care demonstrated statistically significant improvement on mental health and social dependency; patients not receiving home care did not improve on any variable. After controlling for baseline scores, the home care group had significantly higher mental health status at the second interview than the no home care group.

Aftercare↗

Determinants of subsequent home health care nursing service use by hospitalized patients with cancer.

BACKGROUND: The authors examined the extent to which specific patient characteristics and length of hospital stay were capable of independently explaining the use of home health care nursing services by hospitalized patients with cancer after discharge. METHODS: The current study represents a secondary analysis of a data set originally gathered to identify the home health care needs of patients with cancer. The sample involved 87 patients with cancer who received home health care after hospitalization and 43 patients who did not receive such services. RESULTS: A logistic regression analysis indicated that home health care use was related to patient age, length of hospital stay, and level of symptom distress. Specifically, the likelihood of home health care use was found to increase among subjects older than 50 years of age, subjects with hospital stays of more than 7 days (apparently related to surgery), and those who experienced moderate to high levels of symptom distress. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate a need for home health care nurses to be skilled in the management of cancer symptoms and in the complex problems commonly experienced by the postsurgical patient with cancer.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Bringing care to the people: Lillian Wald's legacy to public health nursing.

Lillian Wald invented public health nursing in 1893, making this year the field's centennial. One of nursing's visionaries, Wald secured reforms in health, industry, education, recreation, and housing. This historical inquiry examines three of Wald's critical experiments, each of which illuminates the past of public health nursing and its contemporary dilemmas: invention of public health nursing itself, establishment of a nationwide system of insurance payments for home-based care, and creation of a national public health nursing service.

History, 19th Century↗

Home care the American way: an historical analysis.

An historical inquiry, this study examines a 100 year tradition of home-based nursing care in the United States. Whether considering turn of the century origins or contemporary re-emergence, the continuities in organization and delivery of home-based care are apparent and striking. Most remarkable in the American saga of home-based care are our dependence on local definition of perceived need and appropriate response; the amount of individual ingenuity required to obtain care from an often confusing assortment of competitive, duplicative and fragmented home care services; and our reliance on public sentiment and devotion to individual freedom rather than more "rational" planning methods.

Community Health Nursing↗

Public health nursing: in sickness or in health?

Public health nursing began in the United States as a small undertaking in which a few wealthy women hired one or two nurses to visit the sick poor in their homes. By 1910, the work of these nurses had expanded to include a variety of preventive programs. While most preventive programs originated with voluntary organizations, such as the visiting nurse societies, they were eventually taken over either by boards of education or health departments. As a consequence of the new division that resulted, sick nursing would increasingly become the sole domain of the voluntary organizations, while the teaching of prevention would become the responsibility of public agencies. By examining the history of public health nursing between 1900-30, this article considers why a movement that might have been significant in delivering comprehensive health care to the American public failed to reach its potential.

Community Health Nursing↗