Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

The MOS social support survey.

Cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures: literature review and proposed guidelines.

Research in aging has emphasized average age-related losses and neglected the substantial heterogeneity of older persons. The effects of the aging process itself have been exaggerated, and the modifying effects of diet, exercise, personal habits, and psychosocial factors underestimated. Within the category of normal aging, a distinction can be made between usual aging, in which extrinsic factors heighten the effects of aging alone, and successful aging, in which extrinsic factors play a neutral or positive role. Research on the risks associated with usual aging and strategies to modify them should help elucidate how a transition from usual to successful aging can be facilitated.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/237/4811/143.full.pdf

Human aging: usual and successful

Effect of psychosocial treatment on survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer

Cooperation as a Goal and a Tool in the Classroom.

In light of current concerns over nursing shortages and productivity, turnover among hospital nurses has assumed renewed importance as a managerial issue. This study examines the thesis that organisation of hospital work is a determinant of voluntary turnover among registered nurses. This perspective differs from previous work in this area in that both turnover and its determinants are conceptualised at the organisational rather than individual level, thus opening the way for administrative intervention to reduce turnover. The conceptual model is tested using multiple regression techniques on a sample of 310 community hospitals. Results suggest the importance of administrative work structures and the professionalisation of the workforce as contributors to higher turnover.

Organisation turnover among registered nurses: an exploratory model.

This study tests the competing arguments that organizational turnover rates are positively associated with organizational inefficiency or, alternatively, that turnover rates are positively related to organizational inefficiency only in those organizations experiencing very high or very low rates of turnover. The findings strongly support the former argument: in a national sample of 407 hospitals, turnover among registered nurses was found to be positively and linearly associated with both operating and personnel costs per adjusted admission. However, subset analyses based on hospital size, location, and teaching status, suggest that the strength of the turnover-costrelationship is contingent upon the type of institution in which turnover occurs.

Nursing Turnover and Hospital Efficiency: An Organization Level Analysis

The effectiveness of a set of curricular activities and differing group experience in facilitating interdependent task structuring by seventh graders was examined. Two different sets of experimental groups were trained. In one, group members worked together on every activity; in the other, group membership changed with each activity. Following training, these groups and a set of control groups participated in a simulation for which they were asked to choose rules. As predicted, no significant differences were found in the structures selected by experimental groups and experimental groups structured the task more cooperatively than the control groups. In addition, experimental groups behaved more cooperatively as they participated in the simulation. These results suggest that curricular activities can be effective means of teaching cooperation in the classroom.

A Cooperative Curriculum Experience and Choice of Task Organization.

Risk notification was the initial step in a larger study to determine (1) the prevalence of cardiovascular disease as a late effect of mediastinal irradiation, and (2) whether a brief support group intervention would mitigate any negative effects of risk notification. 323 HD survivors attended a 45 minute risk notification session prior to a routine follow-up medical visit. When they arrived at the clinic and following the risk notification session, they completed surveys that included measures of mood dysphoria, sense of coherence, knowledge of late effects of treatment, and demographic factors. Two analytic models were proposed to look at the effects of risk notification: (1) psychosocial state when arriving at the clinic, and (2) psychosocial change in state following risk notification session. Pre-intervention mood distress was not significantly affected by time since the initial diagnosis, age, education, or gender. Person's who worked and those with better coping skills had lower initial mood distress. Knowledge of the late effects of treatment was not related to mood distress. Following the intervention, the more distressed a person was initially, the better the coping skills, the greater the decrease in mood distress. Partnered survivors experienced less of a decrease in distress. Knowledge of the late effects of treatment (regardless of their knowledge of cardiovascular disease as a consequence), did not effect change in mood distress. Findings were contrary to expectations. Findings are consistent with Self-Regulation theory and the Health Belief Model and are not explained by anxiety related to the medical visit itself. Limitations of the study design are discussed. The method through which risks are conveyed can reduce the psychosocial impact of risk notification.

Joan R. Bloom

Papers

Cooperation as a Goal and a Tool in the Classroom.

Organisation turnover among registered nurses: an exploratory model.

Nursing Turnover and Hospital Efficiency: An Organization Level Analysis

A Cooperative Curriculum Experience and Choice of Task Organization.

The effect of risk notification on mood in long-term survivors of Hodgkin's disease