PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M A Halm

Publications and source records attributed to M A Halm.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Support and reassurance needs: strategies for practice.

Support and personal needs have been empirically validated as two of the most important family need categories during critical illness. Perhaps over-shadowed during the initial critical care phase by a need for relief of initial anxiety and reassurance of quality care and information, support needs emerge as family members recognize the impact of the stressful illness experience on themselves. Critical care nurses can provide social support to family members through family assessment, counseling, and support groups. Although not empirically tested, it is generally believed that such support will influence the ability of family members to provide support to the patient and thereby influence a positive recovery from critical illness.

Critical Illness↗
PubMed1992

Family needs: an annotated bibliography.

Hospitalization for a critical illness is not only a crisis for the patient, but also his family. This annotated bibliography can be used as a resource for nurses dealing with the family members of such patients.

Critical Care↗
PubMed1991

Strategies for developing a family support group.

Various interventions may be used by nurses to provide social support to critical care families. Nurses may support family members in one-to-one relationships, or by facilitating the development of supportive relationships in the group setting. The steps described here are fundamental in developing a support group for family members of adults hospitalized in a surgical ICU to meet their predetermined needs. The support needs of family members and the timing of a support group during the critical care phase must first be validated. Once this assessment is completed, the support group may be based on the educational model, mutual-peer support model, educational-mutual support model, or ventilation model. The group model selected will provide direction to the structure, membership, and leadership of the support group. Regardless of the model considered appropriate for the needs of the family population and setting, critical care nurses need to evaluate the impact of the support group on the psychologic health of the family. The four different group perspectives clearly illustrate the need for nurses to determine what types of support are needed or are most beneficial for families during various phases of illness. Perhaps family members benefit from sharing and camaraderie during the acute or critical care phase, whereas educational support groups are more effective in reviewing illness and treatment implications after the immediate threat of the illness has passed. Findings from these evaluation studies will assist nurses in shaping intervention strategies for critical care family members in clinical practice.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1990

Elimination concerns with acute spinal cord trauma. Assessment and nursing interventions.

Elimination for the spinal cord-injured patient presents a challenge to nurses in both the acute and rehabilitation phases. The most frequent GI and urinary complications associated with spinal shock are gastric dilatation and paralytic ileus, stress ulcers, metabolic disturbances, and neurogenic bowel and bladder. Associated clinical findings are often altered or absent from the lack of sensory, motor, and reflex functions. Nonspecific signs and symptoms such as anorexia, nausea, and vomiting, create the need for complex differential diagnosis. Critical care nurses have a vital role in this diagnostic process by monitoring and reporting significant changes in assessment and laboratory findings. In addition, care measures are directed at preventing complications or supporting the patient's current condition. These interventions include gastric decompression, gastric pH monitoring, administration of antacids, nutritional support, and early bowel and bladder management.

Critical Care↗
PubMed1990

Effects of support groups on anxiety of family members during critical illness.

A critical illness event may precipitate anxiety and a state of crisis for members of the patient's family. Many stressors produce anxiety, such as an unexpected onset of illness and fragmented support provided in critical care settings. This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of support groups in reducing state anxiety of adult family members during a relative's critical illness. A target sample was used to assign subjects to the treatment groups. The control group (n = 30) received bedside support from nurses and other health professionals during visiting hours or condition reports. Experimental subjects (n = 25) attended a support group to share feelings and experiences in coping with illness. No significant differences were found in prestate or poststate anxiety scores between the two groups, but experimental subjects had a significant reduction in anxiety from premeasures to postmeasures (p less than or equal to 0.01). These findings provide a basis for continued research on the effectiveness of interventions in reducing the anxiety associated with the crisis of critical illness in the family system.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Developing a unit-based quality assurance tool.

Due to the dynamic nature of QA, the indicators for the critical care nursing division will continue to change in response to societal, professional, and individual values, as well as to advances in scientific knowledge. Perhaps the latter will present the greatest challenge to the CNS, whose direct and indirect roles influence the quality of care in the critical care setting.

Humans↗