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Biomedical subjects

R Milligan

Publications and source records attributed to R Milligan.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Nursing and medical student teaming for service learning in partnership with the community: an emerging holistic model for interdisciplinary education and practice.

To meet the health needs of communities today, health professionals need to be trained in working with persons from various cultural backgrounds, practicing disease prevention and health promotion in community-based settings, and working in teams with other professionals. The article focuses on interdisciplinary teaming for education and practice. In this model, medical and nursing students partner with communities to plan and deliver health promotion education programs and activities. Four service learning projects providing collaborative teaming opportunities as part of the Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program are described. Interdisciplinary service learning has benefits for the community, students, and faculty and will prepare nurses and physicians to have a positive impact on care through future interdisciplinary collaboration in community-based settings.

Community Health Nursing↗
PubMed1996

Strategies for prevention of adult hypertension and cardiovascular risk behaviour in childhood. An Australian perspective.

This paper addresses approaches to evaluating the importance of different childhood behaviours on subsequent risk of high blood pressure and related cardiovascular risk factors and outlines results of a randomised controlled trial of nutrition and exercise interventions in schoolchildren. Clustering of cardiovascular risk factors was studied in relation to diet, blood pressure, fitness, fatness and blood cholesterol in a representative sample of 555 Perth schoolchildren aged 15 years. Twenty-one percent of males and females had high risk profiles associated with dietary excesses, particularly in fat, cholesterol and sodium intake, and deficiencies of minerals, vitamins and dietary fibre. Socio-economic status was inversely associated with cardiovascular risk and undernutrition in girls. Thus 21% of the school children shared unhealthy lifestyles putting them at substantial risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease. A randomised controlled trial designed to reduce cardiovascular risk was conducted in 1147 children 10-12 years old, assigned to one of six groups for a year. The groups were fitness, fitness and school nutrition, school nutrition, school and home nutrition, home nutrition or controls. On cluster analysis 30% of the children were at higher risk at baseline in terms of blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels, fitness and body fat. With the fitness programmes fitness increased in both high and low risk girls but only in high risk cluster boys. Systolic pressure fell more in the high risk boys in the fitness group than in low risk boys, while diastolic pressure fell in girls regardless of initial risk. Triceps skinfold thickness fell more in higher than lower risk girls in the school and home nutrition group, and more in high risk boys in the home nutrition group. Higher risk girls showed a greater reduction in fat intake and increase in dietary fibre with home nutrition programmes. We concluded that higher risk children do show greater responses to lifestyle intervention programmes in general, with the greatest effects seen with home nutrition or fitness programmes. The results indicate the need for different approaches to prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular risk in higher and lower risk children and for boys and girls.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Postpartum fatigue: clarifying a concept.

This paper describes the multifaceted approach employed to clarify the concept of postpartum fatigue. The process began with a literary analysis, which gave rise to questions about the defining characteristics of postpartum fatigue and its differentiation from related concepts such as tiredness and depression. A series of qualitative and quantitative studies were carried out to examine new mothers' characterizations of their fatigue, the indicators and predictors of postpartum fatigue, and the differences between fatigue and depression. The evolving concept clarification suggests that postpartum fatigue is most effectively conceptualized as a multidimensional concept with physical and mental aspects that is different from tiredness and can be differentiated from postpartal depression or milder "baby blues," with which there is some overlap.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1995

Implementing the COACH relationship model: health promotion for mothers and children.

Program designers and nurses developed and implemented the COACH Relationship Model to help low-income mothers change health-related behaviors as part of a clinical trial conducted from 1990 to 1994 of the impact of nurse home visitation. By first orienting the program nurses to the theoretical underpinnings (caring, ecological, role supplementation, and self-efficacy theories) and then involving them in developing program materials to translate the theoretical and philosophical concepts into nursing interventions, the essential features of the relationship model were retained through the implementation process.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Assessment of nutrition and physical activity education programmes in children.

1. Studies in children relating blood lipids to the extent of atherosclerosis at post-mortem suggest a link between risk factors for cardiovascular disease in childhood and adult life. Tracking of blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol from childhood also supports this association. However, prospective studies have not yet established the outcome in children with increased levels of risk factors. 2. In a controlled trial in Perth, Western Australia, involving over 1000 10-12 year old children, fitness was improved by physical activity programmes which were associated with a greater fall in diastolic BP and triceps skinfolds in girls compared with controls. Sugar intake decreased in boys and fat intake fell in girls, mainly affecting participants in home nutrition programmes. 3. In higher risk children, identified by cluster analysis, major benefits were associated with the fitness and home nutrition programmes. Physical activity combined with involvement of the family in nutrition education is likely to be the most successful approach to modifying lifestyle in children, including those with higher levels of risk. 4. Undernutrition by too rigid restriction of fat intake must be avoided in young children who need calorie-dense foods. Undernutrition, in itself, may predispose to cardiovascular disease in later life. Programmes should aim to establish a prudent diet appropriate to the age of the child combined with physical activity. As regular activity and a healthy diet in adult life will reduce risks of cardiovascular disease it is likely that childhood education will establish lifestyle habits of potential long-term benefit.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

A framework for the study of childbearing fatigue.

Accounts of fatigue in childbearing women are identified in clinical reports, maternity textbooks, and studies. However, limited conceptual clarification or empiric research directed at mothers' fatigue during childbearing has been undertaken. To better understand fatigue, factors in the childbearing woman's life that are thought to predispose her to fatigue were identified; also delineated were the potential effects of fatigue on maternal performance. The framework that emerged, representing insights from childbearing and fatigue literature, is designed to serve as a guide to research that will add to understanding of childbearing fatigue and how it can be prevented or ameliorated.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical approaches in the assessment of childbearing fatigue.

Modifications of the Fatigue Symptoms Checklist can be used clinically to assess fatigue during the childbearing year. Data from a series of studies provide beginning norms that can be used to interpret clinical scores and point to the potential importance of assessments to pregnancy complications and maternal performance. Consistent with North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) definition of fatigue and the theory of unpleasant symptoms, fatigue and performance are important phenomena critical to the experience of pregnancy and assumption of the maternal role.

Fatigue↗