Martha J. Craft

Behavioral Responses of Family Members during Critical Illness

This articles describes the behavioral responses of adult family members to critical illness and how these responses change over the course of the hospitalization. A convenience sample of 52 family members of patients in intensive units completed the Iowa ICU Family Scale, a self-report tool measuring sleep, eating, activity, family role, and support behaviors. Scales were completed by family members each day during the first week and then weekly throughout the patients ICU stay. Family members reported sleeping less with a poorer quality of sleep, less nutritional intake, an increased use of cigarettes, alcohol, and over-the-counter and prescription medications, and spending more time talking, visiting the patient and waiting. Stress was highest at the time of the ICU admission, began to plateau at Day 6, and then dropped considerably by Day 28. These findings suggest that crisis intervention is important during the early phase of caring for critically ill patients and their family members.

Behavior and Feeling Changes in Siblings of Hospitalized Children

The effects of hospitalization on ill children and their parents have been studied repeatedly, but effects on well siblings have received little attention. This investigation was designed to investigate sibling reactions when a brother or sister is hospitalized. The changes in feelings and behavior as reported by 123 siblings of hospitalized children and their parents from a large teaching hospital were studied. Young siblings were interviewed, while older siblings and parents were given a questionnaire. Siblings reported an average of four changes each. The number of changes reported by siblings was related significantly to several factors, such as sibling age, relationship of sibling with hospitalized child, explanation, fear of getting the illness, residence of sibling during hospitalization of the sick child, and perceived changes in parenting. Even though siblings reported 519 changes, their patents reported only one-half that number. Parents of hospitalized children may not know how their well children are reacting. For this reason, health professionals need to interview siblings as well as parents to assess sibling welfare accurately. In addition, health professionals can help siblings by insuring that an adequate explanation is given to siblings and by encouraging parents to maintain siblings at home, either with a sitter or family members.

Experiences in children of critically ill parents: A time of emotional disruption and need for support

The purpose of this phenomenologic study was to describe effects of a parental critical care hospitalization on the family as viewed by children. Interviews were conducted with eleven male phenomenologic techniques and showed these four major themes: (1) emotional turmoil, (2) family disruption, (3) need for support, and (4) minor illnesses. These disruptions are strong and need to be treated through nursing interventions.

Group Functioning of a Collaborative Family Research Team

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH TEAMS are an attractive means of conducting nursing research in the clinical setting because of the many opportunities that collaboration can supply. These opportunities include a chance to: (1) network with other nurses who have similar interests, (2) share knowledge and expertise for designing clinical studies that directly affect daily practice, (3) develop instruments, (4) write grant proposals, (5) collect and analyze data, and (6) prepare manuscripts for publication. The effectiveness of research teams, however, is strongly influenced by group functioning. This article describes the functioning of a collaborative family interventions research team of nursing faculty members and CNSs at a large Midwestern university setting. The formation of the group and membership characteristics are described, along with strategies used to identify the research focus and individual and group goals. Aspects related to the influence of the group on members and the internal operations of the group are also addressed. Future strategies to be explored will focus on the size of the group and joint authorship issues. The authors also set forth a number of recommendations for development of collaborative research groups.

Accuracy of infant emesis volume assessment

Even though nurses assess volume output for blood, emesis, and stool using visual processing, assessment accuracy has not been studied nor has the application of information-processing theory to visual assessment been shown. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the application of information-processing theory to accuracy in visual assessment of emesis. Nursing students and practicing pediatric nurses (N=109) participated in this nonexperimental study in which 20 randomly selected volumes were presented as visual displays of formula on receiving blankets. Subjects were asked to determine the volume. Findings showed that few displays were assessed accurately (M=2.63), but that subjects who have been taught to use a mental frame of reference in assessment were significantly more accurate. Error increased with the display volume. Additional analysis showed that subject practice role, nature of clinical practice, and number of displays assessed for weight accounted for significant proportions of variance in relative error. These findings are consistent with information-processing theory and suggest that nurses who are doing visual assessment should learn a processing method that presents a mental frame of reference with which they compare the observed volume. Further, perceived weight of the object observed should be added to visual processing to increase accuracy.