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Biomedical subjects

E Lindsey

Publications and source records attributed to E Lindsey.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Examining the process of community development.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To present the results of evaluation research investigating a successful community development project. RATIONALE: Many governments, health care agencies, and organizations require community participation in health care. As a result, nurses and other health professionals are often required to practice using a philosophy of community development. Although the theoretical, philosophical, and practical components of community development are well articulated, there is little evidence that exemplifies the experience of initiating and participating in a community development project. This paper provides evidence of how one organization successfully engaged the broader community on a respite care project. METHOD: Using qualitative research methods and guided by the principles and practices of participatory action research, this evaluation engaged with the community in data collection, analysis, dissemination of finding, and in promoting effective change. RESULTS: Four themes emerged that provide insight into how one HIV/AIDS organization successfully undertook community development. These themes include: (a) identifying a community need; (b) addressing the various components identified in the community development process; (c) highlighting the strategies used to engage in successful community development; and (d) attending to factors that influence community development. CONCLUSION: The results of this research contribute to the body of knowledge related to engaging in the process of community development. By highlighting the experiences of one community group, it is hoped that nurses can learn and incorporate this knowledge into practice.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1999

Creating effective nursing partnerships: relating community development to participatory action research.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the importance of creating effective partnerships between nurses practising community development (CD) and nurses engaged in participatory action research (PAR). To that end, an overview of the theoretical principles of CD and PAR is provided and the central tenets of each methodology explored. This is followed by a discussion of the similarities and differences inherent in CD and PAR which derive from the same theoretical and philosophical foundation; that of critical social theory. Examples of two research projects highlight the relationship between CD and PAR and demonstrate the value of creating effective practitioner/researcher partnerships. Finally, some of the lessons learned in creating these important partnerships will be presented. Although this call for practitioner/researcher alliance is not new, what is new is the central role the practising nurse could take in research. Creating partnerships between practising nurses and nurse researchers advances the opportunity to actualize responsive and effective PAR and to fulfill nursing's social contract.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed1999

Home away from home: essential elements in developing housing options for people living with HIV/AIDS.

There is a paucity of data to enlighten our understanding regarding the need for a respite care/supported living home for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV/AIDS) and to identify the essential elements required to initiate this endeavor. Participatory action research was used in this study as the process by which the study was conducted. Focus group and in-depth interviews with 78 individuals were completed and subjected to qualitative thematic analysis. The findings suggest that a paucity of choices exist for PLWHIV/AIDS when they can no longer live independently in their own homes. Principles for developing HIV/AIDS housing programs are recommended, highlighting the need for active involvement of PLWHIV/AIDS in the program planning process. It is only with this collaboration and participation that the housing and healthcare needs of PLWHIV/AIDS can be adequately addressed.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1998

Significant elements of community involvement in participatory action research: evidence from a community project.

Participatory action research (PAR) has been heralded as an important research methodology to address issues of research relevance, community involvement, democracy, emancipation and liberation. Increasingly, nurse researchers are turning to PAR as a method of choice. Although nursing interest in PAR is expanding little is known about how to successfully involve the community in research. This article attends to this dearth of information by presenting the results of a study investigating the significant elements of community involvement in PAR. Through the use of qualitative research methods, five themes emerged that describe the community participation process: (a) planning for participation, (b) the structural components of community participation, (c) living the philosophy, (d) enhancing the credibility, and (e) the type of leadership required to facilitate community participation. It is hoped that by sharing these results others may consider the knowledge gleaned from this project as they plan and proceed with the challenges and rewards inherent in PAR.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed1998

From rhetoric to action: establishing community participation in AIDS-related research.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has been described as the most challenging disease in modern history. For many people with HIV/AIDS (PWA), issues of appropriate respite care and supported housing are a pressing concern. To meet the housing requirements for PWAs, it is essential to engage this community in determining its own housing needs. To that end, a participatory action research (PAR) investigation was undertaken with the PWA community to ascertain the desirability and feasibility of a supported-living/respite-care community home. PAR has been heralded as an important research methodology in ensuring research relevance and community participation leading to effective change. Although nursing interest in PAR is increasing, there are few nursing examples that describe the process of undertaking PAR. The purpose of this article is to describe, explain, and critique the use of PAR in the case of a supported-living/respite-care home. A PAR framework is presented and the process of conducting PAR is outlined.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1997

Experiences of the chronically ill. A covert caring for the self.

The biomedical paradigm of Western society has dictated the values, attitudes, and behaviors of many health care professionals. For people living with chronic illnesses, this biomedical domination has reduced client control. Because of the prolonged nature of chronic conditions, these clients often become the best experts on themselves; however, this is rarely recognized or respected by health care professionals. As a result, people living with chronic illnesses often go underground and engage in a covert caring for the self. Results of a recent research project highlight four themes that provide insight into these covert caring practices: (a) taking control, (b) seeking knowledge, (c) accessing alternate healing modalities, and (d) an altered relationship with health care providers. These findings provide nurses with an opportunity for increased awareness and sensitivity to the experiences of people living with chronic conditions. Such a sensitivity could lead to enhancing client autonomy.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1997

Health promotion in the Hutterite community and the ethnocentricity of empowerment.

Empowerment, one of the cornerstones of health promotion, has been influenced by the transformative and emancipatory perspectives of the revolutionary educator Paulo Freire and critical social theory. The empowerment process is conceived as one of liberation from oppression, powerlessness, and ignorance, and at its core are notions of grassroots activism and rejection of the status quo. This paper critically examines the challenges faced by health-promotion practitioners and researchers who seek to work in an empowering way with a culturally distinct group, the Hutterites. The Hutterian world-view, which values (a) communalism, (b) respect for hierarchical decision-making, and (c) strict adherence to a traditional code of conduct, values, and beliefs, provides an opportunity to critique the ethnocentricity of the empowerment process.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1996

Health within illness: experiences of chronically ill/disabled people.

The concept of health within illness is beginning to gain recognition in nursing. However, there has been little research to explore and describe this phenomenon. The results of a recent study investigating the meaning of the experience of feeling healthy for people living with a chronic illness and/or disability are presented. An interpretive phenomenological study was undertaken with eight participants living with a variety of different chronic conditions. The results provide a rich mosaic of themes describing the participants' health experiences. These themes include: (a) honouring the self; (b) seeking and connecting with others; (c) creating opportunities; (d) celebrating life; (e) transcending the self; and (f) acquiring a state of grace. The significance of these results is that they provide for a reconceptualization of health and illness. Such a reconceptualization calls for a transformation in nursing care, from a problem focus and a deficit perspective, to one which focuses on the client's capacity and the promotion of health and healing.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Health-promoting nursing practice: the demise of the nursing process?

Health promotion is gaining widespread recognition throughout the world as the most efficacious practice in achieving health for all. In Canada, the philosophy of health promotion is driving both federal and provincial health initiatives. Such a philosophy is derived from a human science paradigm and is in direct opposition to the natural science paradigm from which the biomedical approach to health care emerged. There now exists a tension between these contrasting paradigms as health care shifts to embrace a health-promotion perspective. The nursing process is based in the natural science paradigm and on a biomedical approach to health care. In order for nurses to embrace health promotion fully, they must move away from the philosophy of the natural sciences and adopt a human science perspective. Such a shift requires a radical transformation in nursing practice as nurses move away from the 'top-down' approach of the nursing process and adopt a 'bottom-up' approach to health-promoting nursing practice. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the nursing process with the principles of health promotion, and to challenge our use of the nursing process in current nursing practice. In particular, a framework for health-promoting nursing practice will be provided.

Behavioral Sciences↗
PubMed1995

The gift of healing in chronic illness/disability.

Chronic illness and disabilities are the leading health problems in North America and represent the major health challenges of this era. The traditional Western illness care model that has profoundly influenced health care and nursing practice is oppressive, inappropriate, and inadequate to meet the needs of people living with chronic conditions. What is needed is a fundamental shift in perspective, one that abandons the objective stance of the cure paradigm of Western medicine and embraces the care paradigm where the subjective experience of the person is of central concern. Such a perspective allows for the potential for healing to occur, regardless of the person's physical condition. This article presents the results of a recent study investigating the healing experience of people with chronic health challenges. An interpretive phenomenological investigation was undertaken with 8 participants, each participant living with different chronic conditions. The results of this study describe the participants' healing journey. Seven essential themes emerged to describe this experience. These themes include (a) In the Beginning, (b) Hitting the Wall, (c) Turning Around, (d) Letting Go, (e) Opening Up, (f) Letting In, and (g) the Gift. The results demonstrate a need to reconsider nursing education and practice, which shifts from the mandate of cure to a mandate of care and to one that emphasizes the promotion of health and healing.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

The impact of membership in a health maintenance organization on hospital admission rates for acute chest pain.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluate the impact of membership in a staff-model health maintenance organization (HMO) on hospital admission rates for patients presenting to an emergency department with acute chest pain. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: Primary prospective data were gathered from all 3,006 patients presenting with a chief complaint of chest pain to the emergency department (ED) of a university teaching hospital from October 1987 to November 1989. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort analysis used clinical data to stratify patients into groups at high (> or = 25%), medium (8-24%), and low risk (< or = 7%) of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Insurance status was determined as either HMO, Medicare, commercial, Medicaid, or self-pay. Triage decisions were recorded, and patient outcomes of AMI and other final diagnoses were determined for all patients. DATA COLLECTION METHODS: Clinical data were recorded by the physicians in the ED as part of a detailed protocol. Insurance data were recorded separately by the ED staff as part of the hospital administrative database. Patient outcomes were recorded daily by research nurses for hospitalized patients; for patients who were discharged from the ED, telephone or physician follow-up was accomplished within seven days after discharge. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: HMO patients were more likely to be admitted to the hospital than patients in other insurance groups in both the medium- and low-risk patient categories. Within the low-risk category, after controlling for clinical differences in a multiple logistic model, HMO membership retained an independent positive association with hospital admission compared to all other insurance groups except Medicaid. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with acute chest pain who were at medium and low risk of acute myocardial infarction, HMO membership was associated with higher rates of hospital admission. These findings suggest that organizational factors beyond financial incentives may exercise an important influence on hospitalization rates for HMO patients.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1993

Determination of the center of pressure of the hoofs of the forelimbs of horses standing on a flat level surface.

The pressure exerted on a flat level surface by recently trimmed, unshod hoofs of the front limbs of 23 sound, adult horses was measured using pressure-sensitive film and a specially built cassette. The horses were tranquilized and stood with one foot on the 2.9-cm-thick cassette and the other on a block of equal height. The hoofs were observed for motion during the measurement, and the developed film was examined for improper alignment of the film or slipping of the hoof. The center of pressure was located using the method of weighted proportions of Barrey. This static measurement system with a long measurement time and the number of measurements reduced the influence of variables inherent in the horses' behavior and the measuring system. The calculated point was recorded as falling medial to, lateral to or on a line bisecting the central sulcus of the frog. In the dorsal to palmar orientation the point was classified with reference to a line drawn halfway between the most dorsal and the most palmar mark on the film. Forty-six percent of the calculated centers of pressure were located in the medial heel area. Binomial analysis for large samples indicates that this was a significant variation from a random distribution. Seventy-six percent of the centers were located in or on the borders of the medial heel.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Health promotion: a viable curriculum framework for nursing education.

Health care will be increasingly focused on the principles of health promotion and primary health care to better meet society's health needs. Nursing has an opportunity to lead the way in primary health care, however, for nurses to realize their potential, educational programs must be radically revised and be developed to teach nurses to work from a health-promotion perspective. Only when nurses have fully incorporated the principles of health promotion into their repertoire of working with clients and colleagues will they be the desired and appropriate profession to lead health care into the future.

Community Participation↗