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Biomedical subjects

L L Davis

Publications and source records attributed to L L Davis.

86 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
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Using the literature to design a study in the rehabilitation setting: an example with stroke patients.

A literature review can provide direction for decisions that are made at each step of the research process. Rehabilitation nurses can use a review of the research literature to provide the foundation for designing a clinical study. The purpose of this article is to describe how a literature review can contribute to designing nursing studies in rehabilitation care settings. Examples of the literature on discharge planning for stroke patients are used to illustrate this process.

Cerebrovascular Disorders↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The future of organ transplant psychiatry.

The future of organ transplant psychiatry depends less on immunologic and surgical advances than on 1) an increased supply of donor organs, 2) more sophisticated multicenter outcome studies, and 3) understanding of the subjective as well as objective aspects of compliance and quality of life for transplant recipients. From future studies, we may improve the selection process for candidates and discover which approaches are optimal for anxiety, depressive, organic mental, and personality disorders. Absolute contraindications to transplantation may become relative. Integration of ethical concerns with biomedical and psychosocial criteria for selection will challenge future investigators given the inadequate supply of donor organs.

Contraindications↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Looking through the constructivist lens: the art of creating nursing work groups.

Almost every facet of nursing requires some aspect of group work, and at some point in their career most nurse managers will organize or appoint a work group to carry out selected nursing activities. Group work can be challenging for members when work expectations are not clear. However, group outcomes can also be disappointing for the manager who appoints a group, if the group is unable to make decisions and accomplish the specified task or becomes enmeshed in tangential matters. Social constructivism, a recent addition to the family and group literature, provides a different perspective for understanding and facilitating group work. This article provides an overview of group work as seen through the lens of social constructivist thought. The intent of this article is to critique the linear paradigm that some managers use for appointing work groups, committees, and task forces, and to discuss constructivist-based approaches as more effective ways of promoting positive consensus, cohesion, and cooperation among nursing work groups.

Communication↗
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Planning cognitive-behavioral management programs for long-term care.

Recent changes in the nature and scope of nursing home practices challenge long-term care nurses to develop treatment programs that are both successful in enhancing residents' remaining quantity and quality of life, as well as cost-effective in treating specific problems. The characteristics of behavioral therapies make them ideal for the open, community environment that characterizes many long-term care (LTC) settings. Under the guidelines of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, LTC facilities are expected to initiate behavioral management programs and to train staff in behavioral management practices. The purpose of this article is to discuss five key issues that should be considered in planning behavioral management programs for LTC facilities.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Using interventive questions to empower family decision making.

Although families can provide important support for individuals with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, the highly technological nature of critical care often limits opportunities for family involvement. While critical care nurses are seldom family specialists, they frequently provide support and assistance to patients' families. This paper describes four types of questions drawn from the family therapy literature that can be used by nurses who are not mental health specialists to support families and mobilize their problem solving skills. A case model of a head-injured child demonstrates the use of these questions with a family. These questions should be useful for the brief, problem-focused, family encounters which characterize critical care settings.

Critical Care↗
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Will architecture win the technology wars?

Success today flows to the company that establishes proprietary architectural control over a broad, fast-moving, competitive space, Charles R. Morris and Charles H. Ferguson claim in "How Architecture Wins Technology Wars" (March-April 1993). No single vendor can keep pace with the outpouring of cheap, powerful, mass-produced components, so customers have been stitching together their own local systems solutions. Architectures impose order on the system and make interconnections possible. An architectural controller has power over the standard by which the entire information package is assembled. Because of the popularity of Microsoft's Windows, for example, companies like Lotus must conform their software to its parameters to be able to compete for market share. Proprietary architectural control has broader implications for organizational structure too: architectural competition is giving rise to a new form of business organization.

Computer Systems↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessing parents as health educators.

Parental health knowledge and beliefs are critical determinants in decisions concerning health care matters of children. This article describes a data collection instrument based on Orem's Self-Care Theory that can predict the potential for health education in the home.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Get the most from your preceptorship program.

Carefully designed, systematically implemented, and comprehensively evaluated clinical preceptorship programs can expand and enhance the educational experience of baccalaureate nursing students. In addition, such programs can increase the satisfaction and vitalize the teaching and leadership roles of staff nurse preceptors. Such programs may attract faculty and new graduates to a particular practice setting, as well as attract staff to a particular academic program for further education. In an era of increased professional accountability and demands for cost containment, collaboration between academic programs and practice settings can ensure more efficient and effective use of resources to ease the transition of new nurses from the world of education to the world of clinical practice.

Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Spectral analysis of low-frequency, active-head vestibulo-ocular reflex responses.

Useful medical diagnostic information has been reported from low-frequency rotational testing of the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) of patients with vestibular disorders. Servocontrolled rotating systems have been used as the only practical method to generate stimuli over lower VOR frequency response ranges, the decade from 0.01 to 0.1 Hz. Active head movements have been used for testing the human VOR at higher frequencies, exceeding 0.5 Hz. We examined whether active head movements could be used also to test the VORs of subjects over lower frequency ranges, extending to 0.02 Hz. We used a swept-frequency, active head movement protocol to generate a broad-band stimulus. Eye position was recorded with electro-oculography. Head velocity was recorded with a rotational sensor attached to a head band. Six individual test epochs from human subjects were concatenated to form complex, periodic waveforms of head and eye velocity, 75 seconds in duration. Broad-band cross-spectral signal processing methods were used to compute horizontal VOR system characteristics from these waveforms extending from 0.02 to 2 Hz. The low-frequency VOR data appeared to originate from amplitude modulation of high-frequency active movements, acting as carrier signals. Control experiments and processing of simulated data from a known system excluded the possibility of signal processing artifacts. Results from six healthy subjects showed low-frequency gains and phase values in ranges similar to those from published rotational chair studies of normal subjects. We conclude that it is feasible to test the human VOR over extended low-frequency ranges using active head movements because of amplitude modulation of the head and eye signals.

Adult↗