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Biomedical subjects

R Beaton

Publications and source records attributed to R Beaton.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Outcomes of a leadership intervention for a metropolitan fire department.

Poor leadership can contribute to job dissatisfaction and employees' "burnout." Perceived lack of leadership skills is also a source of stress for supervisors. This study evaluated the efficacy of a brief multicomponent leadership intervention provided for fire service supervisors in an urban fire department. Ratings by 51 line firefighters and 8 first-line supervisors documented improvements in their immediate supervisors' performance at 3 mo. postintervention. Self-reports by line firefighters also showed improvements in perceptions of their ability to attain career goals, which were sustained at 9 mo. postintervention. There were also improvements on certain stress related symptoms indices reported by the sample of firefighter supervisors at both the 3-mo. and 9-mo. follow-ups. No significant changes on any of these measures, obtained at comparable time points, were observed in a (nonequivalent) control sample of firefighters and their first-line supervisors in an "untreated" urban fire department.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Bioterrorism. Implications for the occupational and environmental health nurse.

1. Bioterrorism is the intentional release of a biological agent--bacterial, viral, or genetically altered--to instill fear or create chaos, massive casualities, illness, and death in humans, animals, or plants. 2. The threat of bioterrorism is real. Although every community is vulnerable, terrorists seek densely populated, highly visible targets. 3. Occupational and environmental health nurses must to be able to recognize and report signs and symptoms of an early bioweapons outbreak in their workplaces and communities. Only thorough preparedness and planning will result in effective mitigation and treatment. 4. The Bioterrorism Readiness Plan (at http://www.apic.org and http://www.CDC.gov/ncidod/hip) is a template for health care professionals to help plan a realistic response to bioterrorism. It serves as a tool for successful collaboration and communication among all disciplines and public health agencies for the best possible outcomes.

Anthrax↗
PubMed2000

Ecological model of occupational stress. Application to urban firefighters.

1. Multiple individual and organizational barriers make it difficult for occupational health nurses and other providers to understand and handle stress in the workplace. 2. Recent research suggests adverse health effects resulting from occupational stress are more related to the context or conditions of work than workers' characteristics. 3. The ecological approach described in this article provides a means to examine the context in which stress occurs through an analysis of four levels of influence. The levels of influence include the microsystem, the organizational system, the peri-organizational system, and the extra-organizational system. 4. Through a careful analysis using this approach, an identification of the entire spectrum of factors contributing to the occurrence of workplace stressors can be identified, and more effective interventions addressing existing and potential problems related to occupational stress can be developed.

Burnout, Professional↗
PubMed1999

Coping responses and posttraumatic stress symptomatology in urban fire service personnel.

Emergency workers, including urban fire fighters and paramedics, must cope with a variety of duty-related stressors including traumatic incident exposures. Little is known about coping responses of emergency workers or whether their coping responses predict future mental health outcomes. The previously formulated Coping Responses of Rescue Workers Inventory (CRRWI) underwent a principal components analysis employing a sample (N = 220) of urban fire fighters and paramedics. Six empirically and theoretically distinct CRRWI components were identified which were relatively stable over a 6-month period. Scores on one of the CRRWI scales, but neither years of service nor their past half year's traumatic incident exposures, predicted future changes in self-reports of posttraumatic stress symptomatology.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

Exposure to traumatic incidents and prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptomatology in urban firefighters in two countries.

Urban firefighters are at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due in part to their exposure to duty-related trauma. This study compared duty-related trauma exposures and the prevalences of posttraumatic stress in U.S. and Canadian firefighters. Both samples reported relatively numerous and frequent posttrauma symptoms, and the rates of self-reported PTSD prevalence did not differ significantly. However, analysis of departmental records for respondents' previous year on duty revealed significant differences in both frequencies and categories of traumatic incident exposures. Some of the vulnerability and moderating risk factors associated with PTSD caseness differed between the U.S. and Canadian samples. Potential explanations for the observed differences in risk factors for PTSD in these 2 firefighter samples are considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Exposure to duty-related incident stressors in urban firefighters and paramedics.

Little is known about the variables that might be associated with posttraumatic stress symptomatology in high-risk occupational groups such as professional firefighters and paramedics. A sample of 173 urban professional firefighter/EMT's and firefighter/paramedics rated and ranked the stressfulness of 33 actual and/or potential duty-related incident stressors. They also reported whether they had experienced each of these incident stressors within the past 6 months and, if they had, to recall on how many occasions within the past 6 months. A principal components analysis of their rescaled incident stressor ratings yielded five components: Catastrophic Injury to Self or Co-worker, Gruesome Victim Incidents, Render Aid to Seriously Injured, Vulnerable Victims, Minor Injury to Self and Death & Dying Exposure.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Intracarotid chemotherapy with etoposide and cisplatin for malignant brain tumors.

Chemotherapy for tumors of the central nervous system has a limited efficacy presumably because of restricted blood-brain barrier permeability. The advantage of regional intra-arterial administration of anticancer drugs is an increased uptake during the first passage of the drugs through tumor capillaries. Twenty patients with high-grade astrocytomas (HGA) and 28 patients with metastatic brain tumors (MBT) received intracarotid/intravertebral infusion of etoposide and cisplatin. Eight patients with HGA who underwent incomplete resection responded to chemotherapy alone. Four additional patients had complete resection of the tumor. Median survival time of the group (responders and nonresponders) has been 14 months. Twelve patients with MBT responded to chemotherapy alone (six had complete response [CR], and six had partial response [PR]) with a median survival time of 7 months. Intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) appears to be effective with acceptable toxicities. Accrual of additional patients is required before a final conclusion can be reached.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Response to symptoms in healthy, low utilizers of the health care system.

From the literature, it is clear that a small proportion of people account for an inordinately high number of health care visits. Conversely, there exists a group of individuals who rarely seek professional medical intervention and, yet, who remain healthy. This study examines a sample of adults who have not received remedial treatment for any symptom in the previous year, who consider themselves as healthy and who pass a comprehensive physical examination. A gender and age balanced group of healthy low utilizers was administered the Symptom Response Questionnaire, an instrument designed to elicit response tendencies to thirteen standardized symptoms. There were significant differences between age groups in response to symptoms with the older individuals more likely to seek professional help. There were few gender differences within the healthy sample. This sample of healthy low-utilizers was not without symptoms, reporting an average of 20 symptoms occurring in the previous week as measured by the SCL-90. A clinical headache group was also administered the SRQ to provide information about their response tendencies to symptoms. This preliminary study suggests that response to illness may be significantly influenced by age and patient status and that reported gender differences in health care utilization may need to be examined more carefully. It is proposed that behavior patterns of healthy, low utilizers may have direct implications for intervention with high utilizers of the health care system.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1980

Acquisition of an avoidance response in rats during conditioned suppression.

Wistar rats were trained to suppress completely a lever response for food reward during 60 sec of light (CS). After suppression was acquired, deflection of an omnidirectional bar would terminate the CS and prevent shock. An FR schedule to omnidirectional bar pressing to CS termination was acquired by three of nine experimental Ss. Control animals (N = 3), without conditioned suppression and avoidance training, never acquired an FR to terminate the CS.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Single cell activity in the auditory cortex of the unanesthetized, behaving monkey: correlation with stimulus controlled behavior.

The neural activity of 60 cells in the auditory cortices of two rhesus monkeys was examined in relation to systematic variations in cued reinforcement conditions. Subjects were trained on a variant of the auditory reaction time (RT) task. In the final behavioral paradigm monkeys were rewarded for rapid key releases to all tonal stimuli in one reinforcement condition (frequency irrelevant = FI), while in the other stimulus-cued condition (frequency discrimination = FD) releases to certain tonal test frequencies were unrewarded. Upon completion of behavioral training, RTs to identical tonal test stimuli were longer and more variable when presented in the unrewarded (FD) condition. Following neurosurgery it was possible to observe the effects of reinforcement condition on auditory RT performance and the activity of single auditory cortical cells simultaneously. Of the auditory cortical cells sampled, 25% showed definite and repeatable alterations in evoked activity to the same tonal stimulus which were correlated with reinforcement condition. For nearly all cells examined the influence of reinforcement condition was much the same: on excitatory responses were increased in the FD condition. A few of the cells also showed alterations in latency and/or pattern of evoked discharge. Importantly, none of the units examined showed changes in their spontaneous discharge rates as a function of reinforcement condition. both peripheral mechanical and central neural theories were considered as a basis for the observed neural alterations. The specificity and latency of the alterations as well as the absence of tonic effects seemed to indicate that the neural changes observed were mediated by central mechanisms. Our results strongly suggest that the activity of a sample of auditory cortical neurons depends on the behavioral state of the preparation. We propose that 'behavioral state", appropriately defined, can be a useful concept for neurophysiologists.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1972

Single cell activity in the auditory cortex of Rhesus monkeys: behavioral dependency.

The response to repetitive stimulation of single cells in the auditory cortex of the monkey is dependent upon behavioral performance and training of the subject in a simple auditory discrimination task. In the trained, performing animal, single cells are more responsive than in the animal that is trained but not performing in the task. In the naive monkey, evoked responses are labile and are maintained only with nonrepetitive auditory stimuli.

Acoustic Stimulation↗