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P Wilk

Publications and source records attributed to P Wilk.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Impact of structural and psychological empowerment on job strain in nursing work settings: expanding Kanter's model.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we tested an expanded model of Kanter's structural empowerment, which specified the relationships among structural and psychological empowerment, job strain, and work satisfaction. BACKGROUND: Strategies proposed in Kanter's empowerment theory have the potential to reduce job strain and improve employee work satisfaction and performance in current restructured healthcare settings. The addition to the model of psychological empowerment as an outcome of structural empowerment provides an understanding of the intervening mechanisms between structural work conditions and important organizational outcomes. METHODS: A predictive, nonexperimental design was used to test the model in a random sample of 404 Canadian staff nurses. The Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire, the Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire, the Job Content Questionnaire, and the Global Satisfaction Scale were used to measure the major study variables. RESULTS: Structural equation modelling analyses revealed a good fit of the hypothesized model to the data based on various fit indices (chi 2 = 1140, df = 545, chi 2/df ratio = 2.09, CFI = 0.986, RMSEA = 0.050). The amount of variance accounted for in the model was 58%. Staff nurses felt that structural empowerment in their workplace resulted in higher levels of psychological empowerment. These heightened feelings of psychological empowerment in turn strongly influenced job strain and work satisfaction. However, job strain did not have a direct effect on work satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide initial support for an expanded model of organizational empowerment and offer a broader understanding of the empowerment process.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Circadian rhythm of the ventricular fibrillation threshold in female Wistar rats.

The circadian rhythm of ventricular fibrillation threshold (VFT) and its relation to the heart rate (HR) and the rectal temperature (RT) was studied in female Wistar rats. The animals were exposed to daily light-dark cycles of 12 h of light alternating with 12 h of darkness and were under pentobarbital anaesthesia (40 mg/kg i.p.). The experiments were performed on open chest animals and VFT was measured by direct stimulation of the myocardium. VFT in female rats showed a circadian rhythm with the acrophase -338 degrees (at 22.53 h), with the mesor 2.58 mA and the amplitude 0.33 mA. HR was not significantly changed during the experiments and no dependence was found between VFT and HR during the whole 24-hour period (r = 0.08). The acrophase of the circadian rhythm of HR (on -47 degrees, i.e. at 03.08 h) was shifted to the acrophase of VFT. The circadian rhythms of RT before the application of the anaesthetic agent and under general anaesthesia before the operative interventions had a very similar course with the nearly corresponding acrophases as the circadian rhythm of VFT. It is concluded that the electrical stability of the rat heart measured by VFT shows the significant circadian rhythm in a parallel with the circadian rhythm of RT and probably without dependence on the changes of HR.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Changes in the vulnerable period of the rat myocardium during hypoxia, hyperventilation and heart failure.

Changes in the duration and size of the vulnerable period of the myocardium in the presence of respiratory changes were studied in acute experiments on rats. The limits of the vulnerable period were determined by directly stimulating the heart during ventilation via the enlarged respiratory dead space, during hyperventilation and during heart failure. In the control group (normal ventilation without enlargement of the dead space), the vulnerable period lasted 5.7 +/- 0.76 ms. During ventilation via the enlarged dead space, hypercapnic hypoxaemia developed and the vulnerable period was markedly prolonged (18.55 +/- 5.29 ms) by a shift of its inner limit to the left. Hyperventilation caused normoxic to hyperoxic hypocapnia and markedly reduced the duration of the vulnerable period (8.17 +/- 2.21 and 9.31 +/- 2.38 ms respectively). The vulnerable period lengthened the most in heart failure (25.46 +/- 3.93), mainly as a result of a shift of its outer limit. In all the experimental groups there was a shift of the vulnerable period to the right, which was fastest in hypercapnic hypoxaemia and slowest in hyperoxic hypocapnia. The administration of Inderal (3 mg/kg i.p.) or Arfonad (50 mg/kg i.p.) markedly shortened the vulnerable period during hypercapnic hypoxaemia (9.87 +/- 2.78 and 9.32 +/- 2.16 ms respectively), but did not block the shift. Lengthening of the vulnerable period during hypercapnic hypoxaemia was probably due to activation of sympathetic nerves via beta-adrenergic receptors.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Studies of the effects of blockage of intestinal lymphatics. III. Temporary isolation of lymphedematous bowel from intestinal continuity.

Eight dogs underwent intestinal lymphatic block. Once intestinal lymphedema was established, a segment was excluded from continuity for four months and then restored to continuity. The lymphedema decreased during exclusion and reappeared after restoration to continuity. The relationship of the changes seen in the intestine following lymphatic block and to the changes observed in the bowel in regional enteritis suggests a pathogenetic role for lymphatic blockage and explains the pseudobeneficial effects of by-pass as well as the prompt recrudescence of pathology which follows reconstruction procedures.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The dilemma of Crohn's disease: ileosigmoidal fistula complicating Crohn's disease.

Between 1965 and 1975, 27 patients underwent surgical treatment for ileosigmoidal fistulas complicating Crohn's disease at the Cleveland Clinic. There was no death and no anastomotic leak. The preferred procedure is resection of the ileocecal area involved by Crohn's disease with ileocolic anastomosis and a separate segmental resection of the sigmoid colon with colocolic anastomosis. A covering temporary loop ileostomy is used when there is associated pelvic sepsis or small-bowel obstruction.

Adult↗