Harriet Coeling

A Review and Application of Social Scientific Measures of Religiosity and Spirituality: Assessing a Missing Component in Health Communication Research

Social and behavioral scientists in fields such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, nursing, and medicine have been investigating the relation between religious or spiritual variables and health outcomes for several decades. This article reviews a sample of the major empirical instruments used in this research, including extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, and religious coping. The review encompasses suggestions for application of these scales to health communication theory and research associated with identity, self-efficacy, social support, and media use. Cautionary advice regarding ethical issues together with guidelines for use is advanced.

Returning to Work After the Onset of Illness Experiences of Right Hemisphere Stroke Survivors

Experiences of right hemisphere stroke survivors in their attempts to return to work after the onset of stroke were explored through an interdisciplinary qualitative investigation. Key findings indicate that (a) participants experienced an array of functional limitations that precipitated employment changes; (b) employment changes had a substantial psychosocial impact on both the stroke survivor and the primary caregiver; and (c) successful integration into employment was associated with both internal resources (e.g., patience, determination, sense of humor) and external resources (e.g., emotional support and encouragement from caregivers, family, and friends; emotional and instrumental support from healthcare professionals; employer willingness to provide reasonable accommodations). The findings support the use of an ecological approach to facilitate successful return to work for this population.

Understanding Organizational Culture: A Key to Management Decision-Making

Organizational culture is a significant element in todays health care environment. Understanding work culture can assist the nursing administrator in hiring personnel, orienting newcomers, facilitating organizational change, and promoting learning. The authors report a study that identified the work group culture of two nursing units and suggest that differences between these cultures affect a variety of nursing administration decisions.

Facilitating innovation at the unit level through cultural assessment, Part 2: Adapting managerial ideas to the unit work group.

&NA; The culture of an organization is a powerful force to contend with in transforming a healthcare system. Culture can either drive or restrain innovation: sometimes cultural values support innovation; but culture can restrain innovation when there is conflict between the culture and the innovation. Part 1 of this series (April 1993) examined the concept of organizational culture and explained why managerial ideas for change fail to materialize when the work group culture is not considered while implementing change. This article uses research data to illustrate a five‐step cultural innovation process. The creative nursing unit manager can use the process to implement a variety of practice patterns to help the healthcare organization remain competitive and increase the quality of its care. These practice patterns include team nursing, primary nursing, case management, managed care, patient‐centered care, assistive personnel, and computer‐assisted care.

Valuing Authority/Responsibility Relationships: The Essence of Professional Practice

Central to the practice of professional nursing are the elements of accountability, autonomy, direct communication, and authority. The value that nursing work groups place on authority affects their level of acceptance of responsibility and accountability for clinical decision making. The authors examined the value that nurse managers and staff nurses on primary nursing and total patient care units place on authority/responsibility relationships. Results indicated that nurse managers and staff nurses on primary nursing units valued accountability, authority, and autonomy more than the nurse managers and staff nurses on total patient care units, a finding consistent with the professional practice model of primary nursing.