PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A Gupton

Publications and source records attributed to A Gupton.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Perceptions of bed rest by women with high-risk pregnancies: A comparison between home and hospital.

BACKGROUND: Bed rest at home or in the hospital is a commonly prescribed treatment for women experiencing complications of pregnancy. This focused ethnographic study examined bed rest from the high-risk pregnant woman's perspective and compared perceptions of women cared for in the home with those in hospital. METHODS: A convenience sample of 24 pregnant women who had been on bed rest for at least seven days was recruited from the antepartum unit of a tertiary care hospital and from an antepartum home care program in western Canada. Data were collected in 1994 through interviews and participant diaries. Content analysis was used to identify themes. RESULTS: Bed rest had a significant emotional and social impact on pregnant women and their families in both settings. Overall, bed rest in hospital seemed to be associated with more sources of stress than at home. In hospital, women had to cope with separation from home and family, lack of privacy, hospital discomforts, and incompatible roommates, whereas women at home struggled with role reversal and the temptation to do more activity than was recommended. Stressors not unique to but exacerbated by hospitalization included concerns about the children, a sense of missing out, a sense of confinement and being a prisoner, boredom, feelings of depression and loneliness, and negative impact on the relationship with their partner. CONCLUSION: Study findings raise questions about the appropriateness of routine prescription of bed rest. Health care professionals should propose and develop home care programs as an alternative to antepartum hospitalization.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

The Canadian perspective on postpartum home care.

Because of the unique nature of the Canadian health-care system, postpartum home care in Canada has taken on a distinctive form. The provision of postpartum home care is the responsibility of the individual provinces, and different approaches have been developed in each location. The most commonly observed pattern of postpartum care involves publicly funded services provided by public health nurses. Health-care reform and shortened hospital stays have led to changing patterns of care. In turn, these changes have precipitated issues for the mother-infant dyad, the family, and the community.

Canada↗
PubMed1995

Pregnant women and smoking.

One study estimates that smoking cessation programs for pregnant women could prevent several thousand low birthweight babies and save numerous lives each year. Cessation must be encouraged and supported at any point during pregnancy.

Canada↗
PubMed1994

Learning needs of hospitalized women at risk for preterm birth.

In this descriptive study, the priority learning needs of hospitalized women at risk of preterm birth were examined. A convenience sample of 34 pregnant women completed the Preterm Birth Learning Needs Questionnaire (PBLNQ). Respondents rated 18 teaching topics on a continuum from "not very important to know" to "very important to know." The topics rated as most important were the consequences of prematurity for the baby and problems of the newborn associated with preterm birth. Responses to open-ended questions validated mothers' overwhelming concerns for the welfare of their unborn children. The emotional crisis precipitated by hospitalization for possible preterm delivery changes the focus of teaching for those at risk of preterm birth and presents a particular challenge to those providing patient education.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1992

A comparison of childbirth expectations in high-risk and low-risk pregnant women.

This study described and compared the childbirth expectations of high-risk and low-risk pregnant women and then examined the influence of anxiety, risk status, and childbirth preparation on these expectations. This descriptive correlational study employed a convenience sample of 75 high-risk nulliparas and 77 low-risk nulliparas. Results indicated that high-risk pregnant women had significantly less positive expectations for their childbirth experience than did low-risk pregnant women. In particular, high-risk pregnant women expected more medical intervention and more difficulty coping with pain during their labor and birth. For both groups of women, anxiety was negatively correlated with childbirth expectations, whereas childbirth preparation was positively correlated with childbirth expectations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Childbirth expectations: a qualitative analysis.

Maternal childbirth expectations play an important role in determining a woman's response to her childbirth experience. As part of the initial phase in the development of a research tool to investigate maternal childbirth expectations, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of eleven urban Canadian women in their third trimester of pregnancy. Content analysis of interview data indicated that the women had developed detailed expectations of the childbirth experience as well as for the roles of support persons and health care personnel. Exploration of women's childbirth expectations is discussed as an important component of childbirth education.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bed rest from the perspective of the high-risk pregnant woman.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the experience of prolonged bed rest from the perspective of women during high-risk pregnancies. DESIGN: A focused ethnographic study that used interviews, participant diaries, and field notes as data sources. SETTING: Participants were obtained from an acute-care hospital antepartum unit and an antepartum home care program. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four women with complications of pregnancy requiring prolonged bed rest (range, 7-50 days). RESULTS: A model of the stress process in pregnant women on bed rest emerged from the data analysis. Stressors were grouped into situational (sick role, lack of control, uncertainty, concerns regarding fetus's well-being, and being tired of waiting), environmental (feeling like a prisoner, being bored, and having a sense of missing out), and family (role reversal and worry about older children) categories. Two main mediators of stress were social support and coping. Families, friends, and professionals were perceived as sources of support. Women used coping strategies, such as keeping a positive attitude, taking it 1 day at a time, doing it for the baby, getting used to it, setting goals, and keeping busy. Manifestations of stress were evidenced by adverse physical symptoms, emotional reactions, and altered social relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Prolonged bed rest is a stressful experience for pregnant women at high risk. Understanding the stress process in pregnant women confined to bed rest may assist nurses in developing interventions to reduce stressors and enhance mediators.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Complicated and uncomplicated pregnancies: women's perception of risk.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the perception of risk of women with complicated and uncomplicated pregnancies and to determine the relationship between biomedical, psychosocial, and demographic risk factors and women's personal perceptions of pregnancy risk. DESIGN: A descriptive, correlational study. SETTING: Antenatal units and outpatient clinics of two tertiary care teaching hospitals in western Canada. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 105 women having a complicated pregnancy requiring hospitalization for more than 48 hours and 103 women with no known complications and no hospitalization during the pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Perception of risk during pregnancy. RESULTS: Women with complicated pregnancies perceived their overall risk and risk for specific pregnancy outcomes as significantly higher than women with uncomplicated pregnancies. State anxiety and biomedical risk were positively related to perception of risk, but there was no relationship between stress, self-esteem, or social support and perception of risk. The strongest predictors of self-perception of pregnancy risk were the biomedical risk score and state anxiety. CONCLUSION: Women with complicated pregnancies perceive their risks as higher than women with uncomplicated pregnancies. Both biomedical and psychosocial factors play a role in influencing risk perception. Nursing assessment of the pregnant woman should include discussion with her of her perception of risk.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Determination of oral temperature accuracy in adult critical care patients who are orally intubated.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether sublingual temperatures are accurate in adult critical care patients with an oral endotracheal tube in place. DESIGN: Repeated measures quasi-experimental. SETTING: University-affiliated tertiary care center in Western Canada. SUBJECTS: Convenience sample of 33 adults (24 men, 9 women) with a mean age of 63 years undergoing scheduled open heart surgery and serving as their own controls. PROCEDURES: Oral, rectal, and ambient temperatures were measured twice at a one-half hour interval the evening before surgery when subjects were not intubated and three times over an 8-hour period after surgery and after intubation. Pulmonary artery (core) temperature served as a reference and was measured along with endotracheal tube content temperature of the intubated subjects. RESULTS: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results of the study supported the accuracy of oral temperatures in critically ill patients who were intubated. Mean oral temperature measurements were neither statistically (p > 0.05) nor clinically (+/- 0.14 degrees C) significantly different from mean pulmonary artery temperature at any of the three measurement times after intubation and a mean difference of 0.01 degrees C (0.17 SD) was noted. This was not significantly affected by endotracheal tube content temperature (p > 0.05). Significantly high correlations between oral and pulmonary artery (r = 0.92 to 0.96) temperature measurements also were revealed. A significant difference (p = 0.0001) in rectal minus oral temperature discrepancy between subjects with and without an endotracheal tube was noted. CONCLUSION: Sublingual and pulmonary artery temperature measurements of adult critical care patients who were orally intubated consistently showed close agreement during a thermally dynamic 8-hour period after open-heart surgery.

Adult↗