The myocardial infarction patient recovers: helpful and harmful cues

The myocardial infarction [MI] patients is overloaded with many signals, which may act as potentially positive or negative. The aim of this work was to explore the internal and external cues viewed by post MI patients as helpful or harmful to their cardiac condition. 50 MI patients were interviewed 5 to 10 days after being dismissed from the CCU and the internal and external health cues questionnaire was administered to them. Subcategories of internal cues including past symptoms, current physiologic cues and psychologic feedback were almost considered as harmful cues. All of the external cues subcategories were viewed generally as helpful, except for the sensory environment. It was concluded that harmful cues need to be considered in cardiac patient nursing intervention and rehabilitation plans

Explanatory models held by bronchial asthma patients

The different aspects of asthma as a disease have cultural interpretations that may make nursing intervention ethnologically different. Those aspects were investigated with discrepancies between male and female Egyptian subjects with asthma. A convenience sample of 55 subjects were queried by nurse interviewers. Data analysis showed uniqueness and similarity with some other universal Eastern and western cultures and significant and insignificant differences between the studied males and females. The study recommends that ethnic variations be considered in nursing history, intervention and teaching