Sheila Corcoran-Perry

Decision-making by family caregivers of elders experiencing dementia

Families provide the majority of care for persons with Alzheimers disease. Multiple aspects of caregiving, including decision-making, lead to caregiver burden and stress. The purpose of this pilot study was to describe the decision situations faced by caregivers. Nine female spouse caregivers participated in focus groups to solicit the decision situations they faced while caring for their husbands. Some 183 decision situations were grouped into 14 decision-making topics and five other topical categories: physical safety and wellness; cognitive and emotional; relationships; caregiver well-being; and legal. Categories were organized under two themes: decision situations related to self-care and decision situations related to spouse care. The majority of decision situations relate to maintaining the caregivers well-being. Implications for nursing and further study are discussed.

Women's approaches to decision making about mammography

Health professionals have an obligation to understand womens decision making about mammography and to advocate for their active participation in health care decision making. Although mammography is a major screening measure for the second largest cancer killer of women, only approximately half of women older than age 50 years, and fewer older than age 70 years, undergo mammography in accordance with American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify womens overall decision-making approaches when considering mammography. Subjects were a purposive, convenience sample of 50 women in the community who had made a decision about mammography; they included those who chose to have mammograms and those who decided not to have mammograms according to the pre-1997 ACS guidelines. Subjects participated in audiotaped interviews. Results indicated that women approached the mammography decision differently, regardless of the decision they made. Three overall decision-making approaches to addressing risk factors, issues about mammography, or other factors before their decision were evident. The approaches were (1) thoughtful consideration; (2) cursory consideration; and (3) little or no consideration. Each approach has implications for nurses who assist women in making decisions about mammography.

The Study of Nursing Informatics

The article, originally published in Image (vol. 21, no. 4, Winter 1989), presents a framework for organizing the study of nursing informatics. The management and processing of nursing data, information science, and nursing science are proposed as areas for study. The premises for such study and key