Biomedical subjects

Tanya Vishnevsky

Publications and source records attributed to Tanya Vishnevsky.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

A group intervention to promote healthy self-concepts and guide recovery in first episode schizophrenia: A pilot study.

The stress associated with managing a first episode of schizophrenia and the secondary psychological sequelae may predispose young people to the phenomenon of illness engulfment, whereby personal identity is lost and replaced with a sense of self defined entirely by the illness. The overall objective of this pilot project was to provide an initial evaluation of the impact of a novel group intervention targeting improvement of self-concept (engulfment) and overall quality of life for young adults recovering from a first episode of schizophrenia. Fifty-two young adults diagnosed with a DSM-IV schizophrenia spectrum disorder were sequentially assigned to either a 12-week group intervention that provided members with opportunities to attain healthy self-concepts or a control group that received high quality treatment as usual. The two groups were compared on pretreatment, post-treatment, and 3-month post-treatment measures of engulfment, quality of life, and psychiatric symptoms. Allowing for dropouts, 26 subjects remained in the treatment group and 14 subjects in the control group after the 3-month follow-up. Participants in the treatment group demonstrated significant improvement in engulfment, quality of life (intrapsychic subscale) and symptoms, while the comparison group did not change. These preliminary results provide support for the benefits of a group intervention designed to enhance self-concept and to minimize the engulfing effects of illness.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Qualitative research.

A well thought out and conducted qualitative study provides a rich source of knowledge that can be used to provide new information about a phenomenon, promote insight and awareness of human experience and support the development of formal frameworks and tools (Kearney, 2001). At the most basic level, qualitative findings can encourage insight and empathy by raising nurses' awareness of "what it feels like to be in a given situation" (Kearney, 2001, p. 150). The study by Nagle (1998), for instance, draws nurses' attention to the disembodiment patients feel as they undergo hemodialysis and their struggle to develop a meaningful relationship with the technology they encounter on a daily basis. More formally, qualitative findings can also serve as the basis for assessment tools that allow nurses to compare the status of their patients with knowledge of a particular experience or illness trajectory (Kearney, 2001). For example, the grounded theory developed by Gregory et al. (1998) has served as the foundation for a quantitative measure of patients' perceptions of hemodialysis (Way, O'Brien, Gregory, Barrett, & Parfrey, 1999). This overview was intended to provide a general introduction to the main qualitative methods used in nursing research, and to briefly highlight some differences between qualitative and quantitative research. We hope that this review stimulates interest in qualitative approaches for nephrology nursing research.

Anthropology, Cultural↗