Jacqueline S. Dowling

Sense of Humor, Childhood Cancer Stressors, and Outcomes of Psychosocial Adjustment, Immune Function, and Infection

The diagnosis, treatment, and side effects of childhood cancer have been described as extremely stressful experiences in the life of a child. Anecdotally, children report that a sense of humor helps them cope with the daily experiences of living with cancer; however, no research has examined sense of humor and childhood cancer stressors. This study investigated the effect of sense of humor on the relationship between cancer stressors and children’s psychosocial adjustment to cancer, immune function, and infection using Lazarus and Folkman’s theory of stress, appraisal, and coping. A direct relationship was observed between sense of humor and psychosocial adjustment to cancer, such that children with a high sense of humor had greater psychological adjustment, regardless of the amount of cancer stressors. A moderating effect was observed for incidence of infection. As childhood cancer stressors increase, children with high coping humor scores reported fewer incidences of infection than low scorers.

A Multidimensional sense of humor scale for school-aged children: Issues of reliability and validity

The Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) was revised to assess sense of humor in school-aged children. One hundred sixteen children completed the modified MSHS. Chronbach alpha coefficients were .88 for the total scale and ranged from .78 to .85 for the subscales. Item to total MSHS score correlations ranged from .35 to .71. Concurrent validity was supported with a positive correlation between total MSHS score and childrens rating of their degree of sense of humor (r = .42, P < .001). Although further testing is suggested, the modified MSHS can be used in clinical and research settings to assess a childs sense of humor and determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of using humor with children as they cope with childhood stressors.

Making healthy connections: introducing nursing as a career choice to middle school students

The current economic climate has resulted in many experienced nurses returning to the workforce. Despite this, the nursing shortage is looming in our future and the recruitment of a diverse nursing workforce reflective of the population remains a high priority. The Merrimack Valley in northeastern Massachusetts has two large cities, Lawrence and Lowell, in which the Hispanic and the Southeast Asian populations are disproportionately higher than state and national levels. Through the University of Massachusetts Lowells Bring Diversity to Nursing Project, partnerships with both city school systems were developed and after-school programs aimed at highlighting nursing as a career choice were initiated. Mr. Thompsons Heart is the focus of a middle school, pre-entry program developed by faculty. Introducing career choices in middle school gives students fundamental information about careers and how to begin investigating them. Mr. Thompsons Heart introduces nursing as a career choice combining career information with a focus on developing healthy lifestyle habits. Multiple hands on activities create excitement and interest in the nursing profession.

Developing a dedicated education unit in long-term care: a pilot project

Within long-term care, the transitional care setting provides post-acute and short-stay rehabilitation to older adults, easing the transition between the acute care hospital and home or long-term care. The current nursing shortage makes it difficult for these facilities to attract and retain qualified nursing staff. In order to meet the rehabilitation needs for this patient population while at the same time addressing the challenge in nursing education of limited clinical placements and severe nurse faculty shortages, an academic-practice partnership was developed to establish a Dedicated Education Unit (DEU). The DEU is an innovative clinical education model in which experienced staff nurses serve as clinical teachers to nursing students. This paper describes the process of developing a DEU using the Partners in Caring Model as the framework. Formative and summative evaluation results and recommendations for program improvement of this pilot project are discussed.

A Collaborative Research Project on Therapeutic Touch

The current shift toward granting funds for collaborative research proposals means that graduate nursing students must be prepared to participate in the collaborative research process. The authors describe how master’s and doctoral students worked together with faculty to establish group norms, investigate, design, and disseminate a research proposal on Therapeutic Touch. Project goals, description of group members, and the benefits and limitations of collaborative research also are included. Evaluating the collaboration as a challenging yet enjoyable learning experience, students and faculty shared a successful scholarly endeavor that ultimately led to funding and implementation of a research proposal on Therapeutic Touch.

Understanding culture and health practices through an experiential learning project.

To help students better understand the impact of culture on health practices, the authors developed an experiential learning project. They describe how their students used cultural resources, acquired material representing subcultures, collaborated with peers, and developed multimedia displays.