Biomedical subjects

L S Bethea

Publications and source records attributed to L S Bethea.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Medication administration hassles reported by family caregivers of dependent elderly persons.

BACKGROUND: Even under the new long-term care mantra for increased home- and community-based care options, attention to and an understanding of the ways that family caregivers are managing complex care for dependent elderly persons, for example, with medication administration, have been slow to materialize. METHODS: Twenty-three family caregivers completed semistructured, face-to-face interviews to capture the shared and idiosyncratic experiences of individuals responsible for all aspects of medication administration regimens for elderly, dependent family members. Data analysis consisted of content analysis of the verbatim interview transcripts. This article reports an emerging typology of caregiver medication administration hassles derived from the interviews. RESULTS: Based on 122 separate accounts, three categories of medication administration hassles were identified. The categories (with the percentage of all accounts represented by the category) include (i) scheduling logistics (29.5%), (ii) administration procedures (31.9%), and (iii) safety issues (38.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Primary care providers must continually reevaluate and simplify medication regimens for dependent elderly persons in the care of family members, and the family caregivers must be given adequate training and access to ongoing information support systems to help them perform safe and effective medication administration responsibilities.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Family caregivers' use of humor in conveying information about caring for dependent older adults.

Twenty-three family caregivers were interviewed using a semistructured interview format to explore their experiences managing medication administration and providing long-term care to frail elderly family members. Content analysis of the transcripts utilized the arousal-relief theory of humor (Berlyne, 1969) to understand the frequent use of humorous anecdotes found throughout the interviews. For example, caregivers of individuals experiencing dementia often included smiles, jokes, and "punch lines" in their stories of behavioral problems that complicated medication administration schedules. Adult children frequently used humor to describe their role reversal with aged parents and the parents' forgetfulness, incontinence, or inability to dress without assistance. These accounts were placed in a taxonomy of humor response patterns that included categories for cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. Second-level analysis created subcategories to reflect the function (relief or coping) that the humor served in the interview situation. It appears that humor is a useful communication tool for family caregivers that releases nervous energy about the interview process and the recall of difficult caregiving events. It is the responsibility of the interviewer to recognize the problems and issues embedded in the interview data and follow up humorous anecdotes with appropriate probes for additional information. Based on the results, a meta-humorous interaction theory is offered as an extension of the arousal-relief theory of humor.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Improving intergenerational health care communication.

The relationship between health care providers and their older adult patients may suffer from miscommunication problems stemming from agist stereotyping. Stereotypes of older adults by younger adults may be revealed through patronizing speech--or elder-speak, which is the overaccommodation of speech interaction. Over- and underaccommodation strategies based on these stereotypes are often used by young health care providers when communicating with older adults. As the population ages and the demand for health care services increases, health care providers must improve their communicative effectiveness with their older patients. Attention to the individual needs of health care consumers, cognizance of age or role stereotyping, and proper training of health care providers would increase communicative effectiveness and enhance the patient-provider relationship.

Adult↗