Asia Pacific nursing & Health care Journal

Climate Changes and Life

2012-10-10T10:17:20+00:00

"Global warming” has been a dominant popular term of saying for almost a century. Only recently that there are several new terms proposed, especially “climate change" strongly confronting the long-time preference (Bovornkitti, 2009). Albeit the exact literal meanings of the terms "global warming” and "climate change” per se, both have been loosely used interchangeably. In common usage the global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface environment in recent decades and its projected continuation on increasing levels of greenhouse gases attributed to human activities. As the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase, more of the infrared radiation reflecting from the Earth's surface is being trapped and the planet loses less heat, as a result we experience more warmth and other global consequences.

Research Evidence about What Works in Family Nursing Practice: Unpacking and Going inside Interventions

2012-10-10T10:17:20+00:00

The future of family nursing research needs to reflect the essence of family nursing practice, i.e., to heal emotional, physical, and/or spiritual suffering within families. The authors challenge the predominant belief within "good science” that before intervention research can be designed and conducted, there first must be a thorough understanding of the phenomenon, (i.e., an in-depth knowledge of the variables that mediate families' response to health and illness). In this model, only after the variables are understood and the relationships between the variables are known, can interventions be designed to alter these variables in an effective manner. This may be a useful model for theory building that hopefully, after many years of systematic study, improves nursing practice. But in daily nursing practice, nurses encounter family suffering in a variety of practice settings that require immediate care and intervention. Therefore, family nursing practice as it occurs in the daily life of nurses needs to be described, explored, and evaluated to gain an understanding of what is working in the moment. What are nurses actually doing and saying that is helpful to families in their experience of illness? This chapter offers ideas for conducting research about nursing practice with families that goes “inside the intervention" to find answers to the question, "How do we make sense of what nursing actions helped the family to diminish or alleviate suffering ?” This kind of research enables immediate reflections, changes and makes improvements to practice, and thereby increases possibilities for diminishing suffering.

The Effects of Parental Arrangement Marriage and Consanguineous Marriage on Marital Satisfaction

2012-10-10T10:17:20+00:00

The purposes of the study were to examine the effects of parental arrangement marriage and consanguineous marriage among Thai families. The subjects were purposive sampling consisted of 3,994 pregnant women in Prospective Cohort Study of Thai Children (PCTC) project. The Data were collected by interviewing using questionnaires. The findings revealed that 14.7% of the couples had parent arrangement marriage, and 8.7% reported consanguíneous marriage. From binary logistic regression analysis, parental arrangement marriage increased the risk for unsatisfied marital relationship (OR=2.67). However, consanguineous marriage did not show the same effect. Further research within the PCTC cohort and the study on Thai families adaptation process and childrearing outcomes were recommended

Family-centered Care and the Relationship between Hospital Staff and Parents

2012-10-10T10:17:20+00:00

Family-centred care (FCC) is widely used in paediatrics, but is largely untested by rigorous research. As such a critical discourse on its implementation is necessary. Underpinning FCC, and probably the cause of most of the difficulties in its effective implementation, is the importance of effective relationships between the parents of admitted children and health professionals. This paper discusses the relationships between parents and staff and their effect on the delivery of FCC, and is a descriptive review using some historical studies as well as modern research. Aspects of the relationships between parents and staff discussed include communication with doctors, nurse-parent relationships, and the role of partnership with parents in the delivery of care to children and families. These are then examined in relation to FCC and the

conclusions support the assertion that if no rigorous research supports FCC as a model of care, then it is time to question its widespread use.

Predictors of Breast Self-examination among Thai Nurese

2012-10-10T10:17:20+00:00

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death among women. Treatment can be effective if ones are aware of breast cancer screening and be diagnosed at early stages. Thai Ministry of Public Health recommended that a woman at age 20 and over should perform monthly breast self- examination. However, the mortality rate of breast cancer showed an increase from 16.3 to 21.5 per 100000 persons from 1983 to 1999. Several studies indicated that beliefs related to breast self-examination is important to promote breast cancer awareness and breast self-examination. The goals of this study were to examine predictors of breast self-examination based on Health Beliefs Model. Two hundred and fifty nurses were recruited to complete self-administered questionnaires. The results revealed that participants were age between 23 and 53 years with a mean age of 37 (SD = 9.8), 89.6% completed four years college education, 65% performed breast self-examination. Regressions analysis showed that perceived barriers was a significant predictor of breast self-examination. To promote breast self-examination, nurses and health care providers should encourage women to defeat their barriers.