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Mary Hobbs Leenerts

Publications and source records attributed to Mary Hobbs Leenerts.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Relational conversation as method for creating partnerships: pilot study.

AIM: This paper reports a pilot study testing the intervention, Self-Care TALK, whose aim was to describe communication skills used by an advanced practice nurse to create partnerships with caregivers. The communication process and examples of skills used in creating partnerships are described. BACKGROUND: Decades of exploring nurse-client relationships provide a knowledge base for describing a structure and process for building partnerships. Self-Care TALK functions as a vehicle for an education and support partnership. Self-Care TALK, a theory-derived intervention, is based on the Self-Care for Health Promotion in Aging model. Implementation of the intervention was evaluated in a pilot study in 2003, with older spouse caregivers of persons with early dementia. METHODS: Pilot testing of Self-Care TALK followed Lichstein's criteria of tracking three phases of intervention: delivery, receipt and enactment. Henson's communication elements for establishing partnership relationships provided a guide for advanced practice nurse communication. Self-Care TALK was delivered during six phone conversations with caregivers for a total of 36 phone conversations. All phone conversations were audiotape recorded. Field notes were taken during each conversation. Data analysis followed a qualitative descriptive process of comparative analysis in which communication skills were compared across conversations. Categories of skills were named based on communication elements that dominated the category. Communication skills were compared to literature addressing communication and nurse-client partnerships. FINDINGS: Communication examples described the structure for interaction (Self-Care TALK protocol), process of interaction (relational conversation) and caregiver identified outcomes (intentions to enact self-care). CONCLUSION: Conversations to create partnerships depended on one theme: language that supported relational conversation. Four communication skills illustrated the how of relational conversation: listening with intent, affirming emotions, creating relational images, and planning enactment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Building a model of self-care for health promotion in aging.

PURPOSE: To synthesize knowledge about self-care in older community-dwelling people, identify essential dimensions of self-care related to health promotion and well-being in aging, and organize the findings into a literature-based, integrated model with applicability in practice, research, and education. ORGANIZING CONSTRUCT: Self-care and health promotion. Related concepts included self-concept, self-care ability, and self-care activity. METHODS: These terms were used to search Medline, CINAHL, and PsycINFO data bases. Theoretical and research articles from the last decade that related to self-care and health promotion in community-dwelling elders and that provided recommendations for education and practice were selected for inclusion in the analysis. FINDINGS: Self-care for health promotion in independent elders is multidimensional. Synthesis of literature findings resulted in development of the model of Self-care for Health Promotion in Aging, with five dimensions: internal and external environment, self-care ability, education, self-care activity, and outcomes. Examples of education plans that are developed in partnership with clients to promote better health and maximize quality of life are presented. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from current theoretical and empirical literature were synthesized to develop a model of self-care for health promotion in aging. Suggestions are made regarding application of the model in clinical practice and further theory building and hypothesis testing.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A systematically tested intervention for managing reactive depression.

BACKGROUND: Patients and family caregivers repeatedly experience reactive depression that leads to medication errors, mismanagement of chronic disease, and poor self-care. These problems place them at high-risk for malnutrition, infection, heart diseases, and psychiatric sequelae. OBJECTIVES: A secondary data analysis compared findings across a series of studies to evaluate the acceptability, effectiveness, and cost of a therapeutic writing intervention to reduce reactive depression, a common and frequently recurring adverse symptom. METHODS: Secondary analysis of data from the series of studies was conducted. Data came from patients requiring lifelong, daily central intravenous catheter infusion of home total parenteral nutrition necessitated by nonmalignant bowel disease and their family caregivers who assist with this complex home care. Variables combined across the studies were pre- and postintervention scores from the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), the number of weeks patients wrote in their diaries (adherence), and the written content in the diaries. Content analysis was used to analyze written data. The intervention materials and nurses' time spent were averaged across studies to determine costs. RESULTS: The weighted average baseline CES-D scores across studies for patients (17.94) and caregivers (15.75) showed the presence of depression. After journal writing had been used for an average of 10.4 weeks across studies, the effect sizes of the between (d =.27) and within (d =.65) patient group scores indicated moderate to large improvement in depression. Themes from written diaries showed that missing out on activities, financial worries, strain related to the severe illness, and the complexity of home care were related to depression across the studies. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention was acceptable to participants, effective for managing reactive depression, and low in cost. The next steps will address testing for the longitudinal effects of the intervention.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

From neglect to care: a theory to guide HIV-positive incarcerated women in self-care.

Self-care was investigated in this grounded theory study of 22 HIV-positive women incarcerated in a medium security prison in the southeastern United States. Findings revealed four phases in a social-psychological process of movement from neglect of health to self-care. Phases I and II revealed five social-psychological cofactors that constrained self-care and promoted vulnerability to poor physical and emotional health over time. Phase I, "Recurring Memories of Abuse," focused on the damage of abuse histories; Phase II, "Repeating Harmful Coping Behaviors," described maladaptive coping behaviors that put women at risk for HIV infection and incarceration; Phase III, "Searching for Self-Care," exposed the shock of incarceration and the HIV-positive diagnosis and symbolized a turning point in thinking about health and self-care. During Phase III, women discovered the possibility for better health through self-care. In Phase IV, "Connecting in Caring Relationships," women described their need for relationships that would help them promote and sustain self-care.

Adaptation, Psychological↗