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Biomedical subjects

C M Sampselle

Publications and source records attributed to C M Sampselle.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The role of nursing in preventing violence against women.

Violence against women is a significant problem at every age. While nurses have increased their role in identifying and managing cases of women who have experienced physical and sexual abuse, they have been less active in preventing violence. Effective prevention requires an understanding of the prevalence and seriousness of the problem, awareness of the societal forces that foster and sustain it, and application of feminist principles to counteract those forces. The incidence of rape and battery in contemporary society is highlighted, and the societal forces of devaluation of women, power inequity, and treatment of women as property that maintain this destructive behavior are outlined. Preventive nursing actions derived from feminist philosophy that are applicable in clinical practice are discussed.

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Continence for women: evidence-based practice.

Approximately 20% of women ages 25-64 years experience urinary incontinence. The symptoms increase during perimenopause, when 31% of women report that they experience incontinent episodes at least once per month. Bladder training and pelvic muscle exercise are the recommended initial treatment and can be taught effectively in the ambulatory care setting. Bladder training enables women to accommodate greater volumes of urine and extend between-voiding intervals. Pelvic muscle exercise increases muscle strength and reduces unwanted urine leakage. Accumulated research results provide evidence-based guidelines for nursing practice. The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses has identified continence for women as the focus of its third research utilization project. This article presents the rationale, evidence base, and educational strategies compiled by the Research Utilization 3 Nurse Scientist Team. Nurses can enable women to incorporate these noninvasive techniques into self-care.

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Physical activity and postpartum well-being.

OBJECTIVE: To describe reported patterns of postpartum physical activity and to identify benefits or risks associated with postpartum physical activity at 6 weeks postpartum. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected prenatally and postpartum in a study of obstetric outcomes at a midwestern tertiary-care center and its ambulatory satellite and hospital clinics. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand three women completed a questionnaire at the 6-week postpartum clinic visit. Mean age was 29.7 years, and mean education level was 15.3 years. VARIABLES OF INTEREST: Participation in vigorous exercise, change in postpartum activity level, postpartum weight retention, infant feeding method, maternal postpartum adaptation, and participation in activities for fun. RESULTS: Nearly 35% reported doing vigorous exercise with a modal frequency of three times per week. More active women had retained significantly less weight (8.6 lb [3.9 kg]) than their less active counterparts (11.3 lb [5.1 kg]). Vigorous exercisers demonstrated a consistent pattern of better scores on measures of postpartum adaptation and were more likely than nonexercisers to participate in fun activities, such as socializing, hobbies, and entertainment. Breastfeeding was not adversely affected by vigorous exercise. CONCLUSIONS: These exploratory results indicate that physical and psychologic benefits may accrue to postpartum women who are able to exercise vigorously and avoid decreasing their usual level of activity. A prospective randomized test of this relationship is warranted. Although positive outcomes of physical activity have been demonstrated in the population at large, exercise has rarely been an element in postpartum care plans. Nurses who care for women after childbirth should assess women's exercise goals and support them in their desired activities.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Continence for women: evaluation of AWHONN's third research utilization project. Association of Women's Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

OBJECTIVE: To develop an evidence-based protocol for initial evaluation and treatment of urinary incontinence and to design procedures that would facilitate the protocol's implementation into clinical practice. DESIGN: Descriptive report of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) Continence for Women Project. SETTING: Twenty-one public, private, and other women's health sites. PARTICIPANTS: Women in ambulatory care settings (N = 1,474) provided demographic statistics. METHODS: The protocol was developed, sites were selected, site coordinator training was provided, data collection was facilitated by project-specific teleforms, and the overall process was evaluated by the science team. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Site representation, patient representation, site coordinator feedback on the training program, and site coordinator experience during project implementation. RESULTS: The process yielded a representative mix of site and patient diversity appropriate for testing of the protocol. Site coordinators felt well-prepared to implement the protocol and experienced increased professional satisfaction because of therapeutic benefits achieved for patients and positive collaboration with physicians. CONCLUSIONS: The Continence for Women Project demonstrated the potential for developing and testing evidence-based protocols for clinical practice when the resources of an organization such as AWHONN and the research community are combined.

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Continence for women: a test of AWHONN's evidence-based protocol in clinical practice. Association of Women's Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of an evidence-based protocol for urinary incontinence in increasing identification of women with the condition and improving their outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective formative evaluation study. SETTING: Twenty-one public, private, and other women's health care sites. PARTICIPANTS: Women in ambulatory care settings (N = 1,474) provided descriptive statistics. Clinical outcomes were tested in 132 cases for whom pre- and posttreatment data were available. INTERVENTIONS: Standardized screening and baseline follow-up forms were used to minimize time burden on clinicians; bladder and pelvic floor muscle training materials were provided to clinicians for distribution. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported frequency, volume, and quality of life related to incontinence and cost of self-management were used to assess protocol effectiveness. RESULTS: Frequency of incontinence episodes, estimated volume lost per episode, and the cost of self-management decreased. Quality of life improved, as reflected in decreased bother attributed to incontinence and in the number of women avoiding activities such as shopping, exercising, or travel because of incontinence. CONCLUSIONS: This simple program of pelvic floor muscle and bladder training, as it has been systematically implemented in a variety of ambulatory women's health care settings, has benefited women's continence status. The results of this project strongly support widespread application.

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The Urine Stream Interruption Test and pelvic muscle function.

The Urine Stream Interruption Test (UST) was developed to assess the effectiveness of the pelvic floor muscles in impeding urine flow. In the present study, the repeatability of the UST and its relationship to other measures of pelvic muscle strength were tested. Seventy-five women (25 each nulliparous, primiparous, and secundiparous) were enrolled. Repeatability of the UST was demonstrated by a correlation of r = .83. Stronger pelvic muscle strength, as assessed by the Digital Measure, was correlated with more rapid interruption of the stream of urine, r = -.55 to -.59. Greater parity was associated with decreased ability to stop the flow, F = 10.2 [2, 72], p less than .001), with the UST scores longest in secundiparas (M = 4.4 seconds), next longest in primiparas (M = 3.6 seconds), and shortest in nulliparas (M = 1.96 seconds).

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Digital measurement of pelvic muscle strength in childbearing women.

Fourteen primigravidas were evaluated at 32 and 36 weeks antepartum (AP) and 6 weeks postpartum (PP) to test the reliability and validity of a digital measure of pelvic muscle strength using urine control as the criterion. Interrater reliabilities ranged from .67 to .77. Convergent validity was shown by negative correlations between clinical muscle scores and time required to interrupt urine flow at 32 weeks AP (r = -.41), 36 weeks AP (r = -.64) and 6 weeks PP (r = -.71). Validity was also demonstrated in a pattern of lower scores in women who had urine loss during coughing or reported incontinence as compared with those who did not. Women who had cesarean births had higher postpartum pelvic muscle scores with progressively lower scores demonstrated by those who gave birth vaginally without laceration, with episiotomy, and with laceration, F(3, 10) = 5.40, p = .02.

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A digital test for pelvic muscle strength in older women with urinary incontinence.

A digital test of pelvic muscle strength for evaluation of a pelvic muscle exercise (PME) program was developed with a sample of 338 incontinent women living at home. Factors of perceived pressure, alteration of the vertical plane, and time were combined to form a 7-point scale ranging from 0 to 4. Test-retest for the anteroposterior score was r = .65, p less than .01 with interrater reliability, r = .91, p less than .01. Relationship to other variables and further development of the measure are discussed.

Age Factors↗

A digital test for pelvic muscle strength in women with urinary incontinence.

This article reports further experience with a Version 2 digital test performed on 208 community-residing women, 25 to 87 years old. Test-retest (n = 208) and interrater reliability (n = 36) scores for pressure, displacement, and duration were r = .54, .51, and .53 and r = .67, .73, and .55, respectively. Interrater reliability percentage agreement figures were exact for 94% of the women on pressure and 67% on displacement. With duration permitted to vary by 1 second, agreement was 75%. Validity was tested using vaginal electromyography scores with correlation coefficients ranging from .37 to .63. A weak but significant correlation was found between the digital score and the stand-up test pad gain (r = -.12). No significant relationship was found between the digital test and a history of being able to stop the urine stream or other leakage measures. To address limitations in Version 2, a third version of the digital scale is proposed.

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