Chronis disease management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Chronis disease management - Research Paper Example In the paper by Miaskowski, et.al. (2004), the authors sought to test the effectiveness of the PRO-SELF Pain Control Program when compared with standard care in reducing pain intensity scores, increasing appropriate analgesic prescriptions, and increasing analgesic intake in cancer outpatients with pain from bone metastasis. This study covered seven outpatient settings in Northern California, including a university-based cancer center, two community-based oncology practices, one health maintenance organization, one outpatient radiation therapy center, one veteran’s affairs facility, and one military hospital. In this study, the patients were assigned randomly in either the PRO-SELF intervention or standard care intervention. Those under standard care were visited by a research nurse three times, and then called three times by phone between home visits. Those under the PRO-SELF setting patients were visited by specially trained intervention nurses and then received a psychoeduc ational intervention. They were instructed on how to use a pillbox, and were given instructions on how to communicate with their doctor about pain symptoms and changes needed in analgesic prescriptions. Patients were also instructed during follow-up home visits and three phone calls on how to improve cancer pain management. To ensure the ethical treatment of this study, the authors gained the respondent’s written consent, after explaining to them the purpose of the research and the fact that their identity would remain confidential throughout the research. The ethical committee was consulted first and their review and consent secured before the rest of the research process was carried out. A sample of atleast 150 patients was needed in order to complete this study. Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions were established for the patients’ demographic and disease-related qualities. Independent student’s t-tests and x2 analysis were carried out to deter mine differences in demographics, disease, and pain qualities between patients in the two treatment groups. Analyses of variance were carried out to establish if there were changes in pain intensity scores over time. The McNemar test was then used to establish differences over time based on kinds of analgesic prescriptions. The P-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant. This study revealed that pain intensity scores were reduced significantly from baseline figures in the PRO-SELF group, as compared to the standard treatment group. The percentage of patients in the PRO-SELF group with the most appropriate kind of analgesia increased significantly from 28.3% to 37.0% as compared to the standard group which changed from 29.6% to 32.5%. The study therefore established that using a psychoeducational intervention, which includes nurse coaching within the standard of self-care, can improve pain management for cancer patients. Critical Analysis The authors are credib le authors for this research. They possess the

2pg response to a cultural experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

2pg response to a cultural experience - Essay Example India and Pakistan share almost similar cultural roots and most of the cultural practices are same and they tend to show the same kind of emotions and sentiments while interacting with people outside their own culture. One of the most striking things about this particular culture experience would be the fact that Pakistanis and Indians tend to share the same level of attitude towards life. They are not so disciplined as most of the people in west tend to be because their life is mostly haphazard in nature without any concrete planning in their life. The most important thing of my cultural experience with them was the fact they tend to view and honor women in more formal way as compared to the western people. Their respect and attitude towards women is entirely different as most of them are shy at disclosing their emotions and sentiments to them. Mostly you would find them shy and uncomfortable while talking to women. Their dresses are mostly comfortable and they prefer to wear cloths which provide more comfort than style. This distinguishes them because sometimes you may find them little bit more informal than usual as compared to Western people. My overall cultural experience has been excellent as it has been a learning experience for me. This is because of the fact that I have been able to learn an entirely different attitude towards life as whole and little things in general. India and Pakistan give you an excellent cultural experience to live and experience a culture which is more hospitable, little bit less tolerant, strict in it core beliefs as well as values and give a lot of attention to more closer bonds between