Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Group Interviews”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

The group matters: an explorative study of group cohesion and quality of life in cancer patients participating in physical exercise intervention during treatment.

A series of studies have shown that physical activity improves cancer patients functional capacity and quality of life (QOL). Few of these studies have included physical exercise carried out in a group setting. However, patient's experience with the in-group processes remains unexplored. This study investigated group cohesion and changes in QOL in 55 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who participated in a 9 h weekly group exercise programme for 6 weeks. The study used a method triangulation component design. Seven qualitative group interviews were conducted post-intervention. QOL (SF-36; EORTC QLQ-C30) was assessed at baseline and after Week 6. The interviews revealed that group cohesion was an interim goal aimed to maximize peak performance potential by patients. Group cohesion was characterized by a special 'esprit de corps' and enabled the group members to feel like sport teams. The programme made purposeful togetherness possible while allowing the patients an opportunity to let their illness fade into the background. Questionnaire data showed significant improvements in mental health, social and emotional functioning. This study identified a conceptualization of group cohesion that forms a valuable basis for a larger randomized controlled trial to conclude whether the observed changes are a result of this specific intervention.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Living in the shadow of fear: adolescents' lived experience of depression.

AIM: This paper reports a phenomenological study whose aim was to gain an understanding of what it was like to be an adolescent living with depression. BACKGROUND: Depression is a significant mental health problem among adolescents. Identifying the meanings that adolescents assign to their experiences with depression is needed in order to develop interventions that will improve their care and quality of life. METHOD: The study took place in a city in Western Canada. Fourteen adolescents (13.5 to 18 years) diagnosed with depression participated in individual open-ended interviews and focus group interviews between July 2001 and June 2002. Field notes were recorded. Thematic statements that were representative of the adolescents' lived experience were isolated from the interviews and field notes. Using all the phrases, sentence clusters and field notes, the data were then reduced until essential and incidental themes emerged. FINDINGS: "Living in the shadow of fear" emerged as the essence of the adolescents' experiences and ultimately defined what it was like to live with depression. The shadow of fear was associated not only with fear of a return of the "bad" feelings related to their depression, but also to fear of not getting help, not surviving the "bad" feelings, and fear of having to do all the "hard work" in overcoming the "bad" feelings. This essence was supported by four themes: "containing the shadow of fear", "keeping the self alive", "maintaining a sense of belonging in the world" and "feeling valued as a human being". CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with depression need adequate resources and support throughout the illness trajectory, including those periods when their depression is under control.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Teaching paediatric residents about learning disorders: use of standardised case discussion versus multimedia computer tutorial.

BACKGROUND: We developed a standardised case-based educational exercise on the topic of childhood learning disorders, and a multimedia computerised adaptation of this exercise, as part of a national curriculum project based on the Bright Futures guidelines. OBJECTIVE: To explore resident perceptions of the facilitated case discussion (FCD) and the computerised tutorial (CT). DESIGN: Quasi-randomised comparison of two educational interventions. SETTING: Preclinic teaching conferences at a large urban children's hospital. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 46 paediatric residents years 1-3 assigned to either FCD (n = 21) or CT (n = 25). INTERVENTIONS: FCD residents met in groups of 8-12 with a trained facilitator for a structured case discussion, while CT residents worked in groups of 2-3 at a computer station linked to an interactive website. OUTCOME MEASURES: Participant responses during semistructured focus group interviews. ANALYSIS: Focus group transcripts, field notes and computer logs were analysed simultaneously using qualitative grounded theory methodology. RESULTS: Residents experienced CT as fun, offering flexibility, greater auditory and visual appeal and more opportunities for active learning. FCD allowed greater contact with expert faculty and made the material more relevant to clinical practice. FCD participants emphasised the clinical skills gleaned and stated that the learning experience would change their future patient management. Both groups reported that case discussion was more interactive than computer learning. Median time spent on learning was slightly shorter for the CT group. All groups of learners arrived at the correct final diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: FCD and CT stimulate different types of learning among paediatric residents. Future studies are needed to determine how to integrate these two techniques to meet the learning needs of residents in diverse settings.

Boston↗
PubMed1998

Cardiac spouses' help-seeking experiences.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of help seeking by spouses of cardiac rehabilitation patients by eliciting their verbal description of the experience. A phenomenological approach was used to collect data that consisted of individual interviews and focus group interviews. The exhaustive description of the phenomenon of help seeking described how the spouses' views of the illness affected initiation of help seeking. Spouses' stories revealed three time periods when spouses needed help: diagnosis, a time of uncertainty and loss of control; hospitalization, a time of information seeking and vigilance; and homecoming, a time of active help seeking because control is regained. To manage the uncertainty, spouses sought meaningful information to contend with difficulties. Spouses told of the individuals who assisted most, of barriers to seeking help, and availability of resources for support. This study increases health care providers' understanding of spouses' experiences, which may facilitate design of interviews that maximize supports for spouses. Assisting spouses will subsequently improve patients' recovery and facilitate lifestyle changes.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The AIDS Rapid Anthropological Assessment Procedures: a tool for health education planning and evaluation.

Health education is an essential part of efforts to limit and manage the current AIDS pandemic. The information needed to develop meaningful and culturally appropriate educational interventions is often difficult to obtain because topics related to the prevention and treatment of AIDS are invariably culturally and/or personally sensitive. This article describes the data collection guidelines of the HIV/AIDS Rapid Anthropological Assessment Procedures developed by the Social and Behavioural Research Unit of the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS. The guidelines apply anthropological methods of observation, participant observation, informal and formal interviews, and focus group interviews to the collection of information on AIDS-related beliefs and behaviors. When researchers focus on specific issues in countries, cultures, and languages with which they are already familiar, relatively rapid assessments can be made with a high degree of validity. This article briefly discusses these methods and their application to AIDS-related topics, together with the validity and reliability of the various methodological tools available to social and behavioral scientists.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2006

Medical student and senior participants' perceptions of a mentoring program designed to enhance geriatric medical education.

In 2000, the Senior Mentor Program was implemented as an innovative, instructional method in the University of South Carolina's medical school curriculum designed to enhance and strengthen student training in geriatrics. This study qualitatively analyzed second- year medical students' and senior participants' perceptions of and attitudes towards the Senior Mentor Program as an effective learning modality. A total of 36 second-year students from two consecutive classes (2002-2003) and 42 senior mentors at USC's School of Medicine participated in five and seven separate focus group interviews, respectively. The group discussions were transcribed and a content analysis performed using NVivo. The coding scheme and analyses were driven by the data collected and recurrent themes were examined across all focus groups. Overall, student and senior mentor participants viewed the program positively. Thematic comparisons by participant type indicate a shared view that the mentoring relationship has a far-reaching, educational, professional, and personal impact. Both students and seniors agreed that myths and stereotypes about aging were dispelled and students indicated that a close, caring relationship with an older person will change they way they practice. A longitudinal mentoring program that pairs students with community-dwelling seniors can be a valuable addition to traditional geriatric curricular activities designed to increase students' skills and compassion for caring for older adults.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Case management decision making: goal transformation through discretion and client interpretation.

This study examines the decision-making strategies employed by case managers in a state-funded home care program for the elderly. Specifically, this study applies Lipsky's (1980) theory of street-level bureaucracy to gerontological research on case management decision making in an effort to demonstrate the presence of case management discretion, and the impact of that discretion on home care implementation. Drawing upon individual interviews and focus group interviews, results suggest the applicability of the proposed framework, and indicate the need for policy planners to identify factors for case manager discretion that result in undesirable home care goal transformation.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Disrupting the sexual double standard: young women's talk about heterosexuality.

Despite significant changes in the social landscape over the past two decades, much ethnographic research suggests that young women's negotiations of (hetero)sexuality remain dominated by the sexual double standard. Within the sexual double standard, an active, desiring sexuality is positively regarded in men, but denigrated and regulated by negative labelling in women. This article analyses young women's talk on the subject of negotiating (hetero)sexual relationships, drawn from focus-group interviews with six groups of young women aged 16-18 years. A feminist, post-structuralist form of discourse analysis is used to analyse the material, the aim being to examine young women's talk about (hetero)sexuality from the standpoints of agency and resistance. Analyses identified various ways in which the sexual double standard was disrupted, including challenging the language of the sexual double standard, articulating sexual desire, and positioning of self and (hetero)sex within alternative discourses. The findings also suggest, however, that voices of resistance to the sexual double standard may be muted and individual rather than collective, and that, accordingly, every effort should be made by those working with young women to recognize and support attempts to disrupt the sexual double standard.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

[Should we make a bid for SATS? Evaluation of a new educational project in family practice].

A new method for education of general practitioners and for quality assurance in primary health care has been employed in Norway since 1996. The practitioners collect data from their own practices using computerized medical records. Peer groups of four to ten general practitioners meet regularly to present their results, agree on local standards and plan improvements. They may choose among four medical topics. This article presents an external evaluation of participants' experiences conducted by focus group interviews of five groups. Satisfaction with the project was partly dependent on the topic addressed by the group. Groups of participants who felt that they improved their medical knowledge were most favourable to the project. Data collection from their own practices, presented and discussed in the group, was considered a very good basis for learning. Although the project's aim was not properly clarified, we regard this method as promising.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2001

Sedating critically ill patients: factors affecting nurses' delivery of sedative therapy.

BACKGROUND: Critical care nurses often have wide discretion in managing the sedative therapy of patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Little is known about the factors and processes that influence sedative practice. OBJECTIVES: To determine if nurses' personal beliefs about and attitudes toward critical illness and their goals for sedation influence the nurses' sedative practice, to discover whether social factors influence sedative therapy, and to describe the processes that nurses use to assess patients' need for sedative therapy. METHODS: Audiotapes of focus group interviews with 5 groups of 34 experienced medical and surgical intensive care unit nurses from 2 hospitals were transcribed verbatim. Two investigators independently analyzed the verbatim text, and a sample of the participants validated the category summaries and interpretations. RESULTS: Patients' family members can affect sedative practice directly or indirectly, and demands for efficient delivery of care can influence sedative therapy. Primary indications for sedation included patients' comfort and amnesia and prevention of patients' self-injurious behaviors. Conflicts between physicians and nurses arose when explicit and shared goals for sedation were lacking. Participants noted that numerous factors impede routine use of sedation protocols even though use of the protocols may improve communication and promote uniformity of sedative practice. CONCLUSION: Social, personal, and professional factors influence sedative therapy. Future research should establish the relative importance of these factors and determine whether their impact is attenuated when sedation protocols are implemented.

Critical Illness↗
PubMed2003

Achieving collaborative workplace learning in a university critical care course.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, implementation and evaluation of a new critical care curriculum based on the tenets of collaborative workplace learning. It also examines lecturers' and clinical educators' issues, and explores students' evaluations of the old curriculum compared with those of the new curriculum. Three data collection methods were used for this study. Comprehensive notes were maintained of the meetings conducted with lecturers, clinical educators and representative students during the development and implementation of the course. Three focus group interviews were conducted with students before the introduction of the new curriculum and three focus group interviews were conducted during first semester following implementation of the new curriculum. Quality-of-teaching surveys were also completed by two groups of critical care course students: one group before and one group following the introduction of the new curriculum. Major findings in this study included: developing a sense of ownership of the curriculum for clinical educators, clinical educators' difficulties with addressing their responsibilities, amalgamating theoretical learning with clinical practice, and tackling students' workload. This paper demonstrates the value of using the collaborative workplace learning approach in strategically addressing the challenges of developing and conducting a university critical care course.

Australia↗
PubMed2000

A guide to the use of focus groups in health care research: Part 1.

Focus group interviewing is becoming a popular research method among nurses as well as allied health professionals. Prior to performing a focus group interview a novice must first search the literature to gain an understanding of the function, uses, preparation, conduct and analysis of this form of methodology. This paper has been compiled in an attempt to synthesise, condense and simplify the information from an extremely wide and varied focus group literature and provide a comprehensive review to assist nurses who are considering utilising this methodology in their research studies. The purpose of this paper was stimulated by one of the author's (MP) own experience learning about focus group methodology before commencing her first focus group.

Bias↗
PubMed2002

[Strategies for the diagnosis of dementia. Experiences of collaboration between general practitioners and district nurses].

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to explore the context and experiences of collaboration between the general practitioner (GP) and the district nurse (DN) on diagnosing dementia, in order to identify possible procedures to improve care. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two group interviews respectively with four DNs and five GPs working in the municipality of Copenhagen. RESULTS: The group interviews revealed that the suboptimised collaboration could be caused by different inter-professional diagnostic strategies and a lack of understanding of the importance of early, shared, decision-making. This could create conflicts between the groups. DISCUSSION: This study indicates a possibility of improving the collaboration between the two professional groups on diagnosing dementia. Possible approaches to improved care should focus on an inter-professional understanding of the importance of early, shared, decision-making, emphasising early identification and care of diagnosed demented patients.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Views of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in Australian long-term care.

The existing job satisfaction literature has tended towards an overemphasis on job satisfaction instruments. In the study reported here the views of 27 nurses and assistants-in-nursing, collected through focus group interviews, were examined to determine the factors that contribute to workplace satisfaction and dissatisfaction in long-term care of older people. Content analysis of focus group interview data revealed that job satisfaction was related to workplace flexibility, residents, working within a team environment and dedication to the service of optimal resident care. Dissatisfaction was linked to working with unskilled or inappropriately trained staff, laborious tasks such as documentation, staffing levels, tensions within role expectations and the increasing need to be available for overtime. In spite of different role expectations, long-term nursing home care is reported to be a very satisfying area in which to work. However, care managers need to put in place strategies for building improved job satisfaction and workplace incentives to encourage graduates to consider long-term care opportunities. Limitations of the study include the small number of participants, bias towards one organization and lack of generalizability of the results. However, the findings confirm many earlier job satisfaction studies and further support the need to consider these issues in relation to recruitment and retention in long-term care.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Chinese fishermen's expectations on medications.

This study aimed to explore the expectations on medications of Chinese fishermen, a group of culturally distinct people, when they consult their family doctors. A qualitative method of semistructured focus group interviews was used for data collection. Twenty-nine participants took part in eight focus group interviews. They were all from the southern district of Hong Kong Island where many of the residents have a fishing background. Their expectations of doctors' willingness to give them medicines might originate from their previous experiences with traditional therapies. Although some would prefer the medicines to be potent while others like them not to be too strong, they all wanted the medicines to lead them to fast recovery. It is therefore important for their western-trained family doctors to be culturally sensitive to their expectations and, hence, make more effort in explaining the use and misuse of medicines.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Introduction of the patient-list system in general practice. Changes in Norwegian physicians' perception of their gatekeeper role.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether the patient-list system, recently introduced in general practice, has influenced general practitioners' (GPs') self-perception as gatekeepers. DESIGN: Structured focus group interviews with GPs and a short self-administered questionnaire. SETTING: Primary care within the public health care system in Norway. Group interviews were conducted 6 months to 1 year after the patient-list system was introduced in June, 2001. SUBJECTS: 81 GPs attending tutorial groups or specialists' continuous education groups. OUTCOME MEASURES: GPs' experience with the reform as stated in 11 group discussions, recorded, transcribed and systematically analysed through coding and extracting of the informants' statements. The questionnaire provided background information about each participant. RESULTS: The doctors generally perceived themselves as less concerned with the gatekeeper role under the new system. They felt it more important to provide better services and keep patients satisfied. The practitioners explained this shift using three contextual factors: increased and more visible competition, higher expectations from the patients and more responsibility assigned to the GP. CONCLUSION: GPs in Norway have experienced a shift in power in the physician-patient relationship favouring the patient. The GP's consciousness of the gatekeeper role has diminished. We question whether the new system lessens the incentive to consider resource use in decision-making.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Infantile colic--less common than previously estimated?

A two-part population-based study investigating the occurrence of infantile colic was undertaken, in which 92% of mothers with newborn healthy infants were reached. In the prospective part 152 mothers ("diary group") registered crying and fussing in their infants during 12 weeks. In the retrospective part 224 mothers ("interview group") were contacted by telephone at an infant age of 5-7 months. The colic occurrence was determined according to four different definitions; the rate varied from 3.3 to 17.1%. The classical "Wessel-type" colic was present in 9.3%. Colic defined as "crying seen as a problem by parent" was present in 12.1% of the "interview group", but in only 3.3% of the "diary group". Some earlier studies may have overestimated colic occurrence. Another possibility is an actual decline. The contributive part of preventive measures is discussed.

Colic↗