[Models of health behavior]. / Les modèles, de comportements de santé.

One of the challenges for health professionals is to understand how individuals adopt and maintain healthy behaviours that lead to a better quality of life. This review of health behaviour models will help nurses determine appropriate interventions, and enhance programs that promote health and prevent sickness in individuals or groups of individuals. In order to establish priorities and to prevent omitting important points in planning such health programs, many theoretical and conceptual models have attempted to explain health behaviours as well as the indicators of compliance. The purpose of this article is to summarise the most utilised health behaviour models, to offer a schematic representation, and to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each model. Until now, no article had reviewed these models into the same work. This article will be of assistance to nurse researchers and clinicians working in health prevention, who are interested in choosing a health behaviour model to plan a scientific research, or to develop a clinical program. The models are presented according to the following classifications: cognitive value expectation; theories of personality; communication theories; models of program planning; and models of integration.

[Adoption and maintenance of health behavior: the challenge of treatment compliance]. / L'adoption et le maintien d'un comportement de santé: le défi de l'assiduité au traitement.

The aim of this article is to give an overview of the different concepts related to the phenomenon of regularity so as to better outline it in the context of a medical treatment. The attitudes, the beliefs, the perception of the personal control as well as the motivation are presented as the different factors influencing the adoption and upholding of a health behaviour. The recent conception of the learning process and the active role given to the learner have led to the recognition of the fact that, in order to have an effective learning process, the learner must become involved in the self management and self control of his own learning process. Whatever the chosen strategy, an educative intervention focused on the knowledge can only be efficient if it enables the person to increase his (her) control.

[The professional life and the health of nurses since the transformation of the Québec health system.]. / La vie professionnelle et la santé des infirmières depuis la transformation du réseau de la santé

Over the last years, the Quebec health system has gone through a period of transformation aimed at cost reduction and better efficiency. The present study describes the effects of the transformation on the professional life and on the health of nurses in the Quebec City urban area. Despite a cross-sectional study not allowing links from cause to effect and despite the fact that the study only includes nurses who were still employed by institutions, the research shows an increase of the prevalence of a higher level of psychological distress in nurses since the beginning of the transformation. Interventions in the work place should be geared to professional factors that nurses identify as problematical.

[Developing expertise in the rural milieu]. / Une expertise à développer en milieu rural.

Although rural nursing gets little attention, the health of the farming family is increasingly threatened. Isolation, stress, psychological distress, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide and the health risks of farming itself make daily life difficult. In terms of accident-prone occupations, farming is rated tenth and is considered one of the most stressful. These problems have resulted in a drop in the number of farming enterprises in Quebec, from 80,000 in the 1930s to less than 11,400 in the mid-1990s. The farming family is largely misunderstood and presents a sizeable challenge to researchers and health care providers. This population has no desire to disclose its problems or share confidences in others. A summary of American papers, plus information from a recent study by Santé-Québec, reveals the determining factors in the health of the faming family. In the rural environment, health is first defined by work and is influenced by rural values. Nurses must be able to offer health care that relies on these values and use their knowledge to be innovative and personalize interventions. It is important that nursing programs reflect current knowledge of rural nursing. Research is also needed to help nurses further define the problems and determine the factors that influence the health of the farming family.

[Future shock of the new graduates]. / Le choc du futur des nouvelles diplomées.

How do new nursing graduates take their place in a changing workforce with continuing changes to health care delivery and budgetary cuts in health care institutions? To understand the importance of successfully adjusting to new employment and the rate at which new graduates leave the profession, it is necessary to understand what goes on during their first months on the job. This qualitative research project was conducted over an 18-month period and focused on the initial work adjustment period. It involved 31 nursing graduates working in five different hospitals in Quebec's Estrie Region. The results indicate new graduates discover very early on that they've entered a brave new world where the work situation proves to be very different from what they have been taught. There is still a wide gap between theory and practice, and rarely are the students' expectations met with regards to providing holistic care, communicating with patients and establishing care plans. The students' precarious work situation as occasional nurses on call becomes a way of life. In the absence of job opportunities, they must develop adjustment strategies to ensure professional survival. A new type of nurse is emerging--the "functional nurse." The functional nurse learns to be available at all times, to provide care with no continuity and without any hope of ever belonging to a unit. Meanwhile, she questions herself about the quality of care she is giving and her future as a nurse.

[The exercise of partnership: an exploratory analysis throughout the development of a crisis intervention service in the Haut-Richelieu territory]. / L'exercice du partenariat: une analyse exploratoire à travers le développement d'un service d'intervention de crise dans le territoire du Haut-Richelieu.

This article analyzes the concept, the implementation process and the objective of a crisis intervention center in the Haut-Richelieu area. It examines the driving and resisting forces to the practice of partnership as established by the Quebec government in its official policy for mental health. The authors describe the practice of partnership during the different phases of the project's implementation by showing the impact of this approach on the risks involved or on the potential for misdirection. In addition, the authors identify some of the weaknesses related to this approach. Following this description of how the project has progressed, the authors discuss the constraints and success factors of this type of partnership in order to compare the logic and obligations of this approach with an approach originating from the common desire and collective will to meet familiar needs.

Anti-thrombotic effect of very low doses of acetyl salicylic acid in rats.

The anti-thrombotic effect of acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) was studied using the following experimental model: a silk thread was inserted in an extracorporeal shunt between the right carotid artery and the opposite jugular vein. A thrombus developed around the thread which was weighed at 10 minutes intervals. ASA inhibits the development of the thrombus at a dose of 3.1 mg/kg. When the dose was increased the anti-thrombotic effect disappeared. These results suggest that ASA may be an effective antithrombotic agent in man if the dosage is based on pharmacological data.