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Biomedical subjects

M J Aspinall

Publications and source records attributed to M J Aspinall.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1981

Evaluating patient outcomes.

In this study, nurses effectively demonstrated that in addition to stating goals in observable outcomes, they could develop rating scales to measure a patient's progress toward goal attainment. An unexpected finding was that improvement in evaluation was accompanied by corresponding improvement in other components of the nursing process. For example, prior to the study period, nurses rarely listened to chest sounds or measured ventilatory volume to assess lung congestion, even though many had received training in physical assessment and a respirometer was available on the unit. During the study period, however, there was a flurry of auscultation and spirometric measurement activities for patients whose goals were to decrease lung congestion. When one such patient failed to progress as rapidly as the nurse anticipated, greater assistance was given to pulmonary physiotherapy and assistance with coughing. Although nursing has not given sufficient attention to the development of patient evaluation tools, recent legislation as well as consumers' demand for quality care are providing the impetus for developing such mechanisms in a scientific way. This fact may significantly contribute to refining clinical data for the objective evaluation of patient progress. Since most nurses receive some theoretical education in the evaluation process, the challenge may well be to provide nurses, in both educational and service settings, with practical experiences in developing and implementing evaluation techniques.

Goals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relationship between effective coping and perceived quality of life in spinal cord injured patients.

This article describes a study that explored the relationship between coping effectiveness and perceived quality of life in spinal cord injured patients. The subjects were 40 functionally disabled inpatient wheelchair-bound individuals from two rehabilitation units at the Long Beach VA Medical Center in Long Beach, CA. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) and descriptive statistics. Patients with the most effective coping mechanisms also had the highest quality of life. The results were the same for both paraplegics and quadriplegics.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Development of a patient-completed admission questionnaire and its comparison with the nursing interview.

To compare the effectiveness of a patient-completed paper-and -pencil questionnaire with the nursing interview in obtaining the admission history, 30 patients newly admitted to a Veterans Administration hospital were asked to complete a questionnaire and were given the routine nursing interview. Data were compared for accuracy and nursing time required. The nurses made significantly more errors of omission in an unstructured interview than the patient made in completing the questionnaire (p greater than .001). The nurse spent an average of 11.5 minutes on her interview while the investigator used an average of 0.9 minute to explain the reason for the questionnaire to the patient and obtain his consent to its completion. Study findings are discussed as a means of providing an accurate, systematic, recorded data base for planning nursing care.

California↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Use of a decision tree to improve accuracy of diagnosis.

Thirty triads of nurses matched for educational background, length of experience, and previous performance were studied to determine if use of a decision tree would improve diagnostic accuracy. One experimental and two control groups were given a written case study and asked to list all possible diagnoses that could cause the change in behavior exhibited by the patient. Experimental group nurses were given a set of decision trees to enable them to use the information systematically to determine if characteristics of each condition were present. Significant improvement in diagnostic accuracy was shown by nurses who used the decision trees.

Decision Making↗