Study of Suffering Inference by Nurses' pain Experience / 성인간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nurses' pain experience on the inference of their patients' suffering. METHOD: Study subjects were sampled from 184 nurses who worked in general wards in one S university hospital located at Seoul. Nurses' pain experience consists of personal pain experience and professional pain experience. The Standard Measure of Inference of Suffering (Davitz and Davitz, 1981) was used for suffering inference measure, and patients' suffering which consists of physical pain and psychological distress. RESULT: Suffering inference scores of nurses without personal pain experience revealed a higher value than that of nurses with personal pain experience. But these differences were not statistically significant. The higher intense pain was experienced, the higher were suffering inference scores. This physical pain inference score was statistically significant(p=.044). Of the nurses who had personal pain experience, suffering inference scores of nurses with unrelieved pain experience revealed a higher value than that of nurses with relieved pain experience. Physical pain and psychological distress inference scores were statistically significant(p=.010, p=.006). Suffering inference scores of nurses without professional pain experience(internal medicine, general surgery, orthopedic surgery) revealed a higher value than that of nurses with professional pain experience. Professional pain experience of internal medical illness was statistically significant in psychological distress of internal medical illness (p=.044), and professional pain experience of orthopedic surgical illness was statistically significant in physical pain of orthopedic surgical illness(p=.027). CONCLUSION: Nurses who have experienced low pain intensity or good pain relief are inclined n to underestimate patient' pain. Although nurses who care for the same patient over a long time deal skillfully with that patient, nurses are inclined to underestimate that patients' pain. Nurses need to be aware of possible biases related to pain assessment as a result of pain experience.

Pain of Elderly Women with Osteoarthritis / 간호학회지

The purpose of this study was to determine the meaning of the pain and experiences of elderly women with osteoarthritis, by adopting Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The participants were 7 elderly women over the age of 65. They were selected using a theoretical sampling technique. The Data was collected by in-depth and open-ended interviews from Dec. 1. 1999. to Feb, 28. 2000. The length of the interviews varied from 120 minutes to 180 minutes. Data was recorded and analyzed by a constant comparative method. From the data, significant statements were extracted and then organized into 48 themes, which resulted in 15 clusters of themes and 6 categories. The final descriptions turned out to be valid through the interviewee' validation process. Essential themes of the pain experiences emerged : "physical discomfortness(disturbances)", "negative state of mind", "influence of the death", "positive change in life", "Cause of pain perceived", and "change of their personal relationships". From these results, it was found that elderly women need nursing care based on a deep understanding of pain, and a reflection on their past is imperative to overcome their given situations. In conclusion, it is suggested that the care givers provide more support to solve the problems experienced by the elderly. Thus the researchers expect to provide understanding of older people and give basic data of holistic care for them.

Characteristic properties of spontaneous discharges synchronized with heart beat in thalamic ventrobasal complex / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

A total of 681 unitary activities were recorded extracellularly in the thalamic ventrobasal complex (VB) of anesthetized and immobilized cats, of which 67 units were synchronized with heart beat (HB) with some relative latency. HB discharges were divided into six types according to the shape in their post Rwave time histogram (PRTH) analysis, however some HB changed in both the number and relative latency of the discharge, and were identified their receptive fields (Rfs) on or in the bodies, of 35 units of the 681 (5.1%). These HB Rfs were distributed widely from the tip of auricula to the toe of hindlimb. The lateralities of their HB Rfs were all contralateral to recording sites in the thalamic VB. In general, the HB Rfs of the thalamic VB were distributed on upper half of the bodies much more than the lower half; especially on the upper cervix, the chest and the forelimbs. The somatotopic organization of HB units in thalamic VB showed the same tendency. The relative latencies between the R-wave of ECG and HB activities showed the tendency to be dependent on the distances from the Rfs to the recording sites in thalamic VB. Some HB activity was followed by a silent period when the background activities disappeared during several tens of milliseconds which was presumably caused by a feedback inhibitory mechanism consisting of the axon collateral of the thalamocortical cell and the inhibitory interneuron.