PROBLEM-SOLVING THERAPY FOR DEPRESSED OLDER HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS: A PILOT RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Depression is the most common mental health problem reported among dialysis patients. Problem-Solving Therapy (PST) is effective for treating depression in patients with chronic illness, but its acceptability has never been reported in older hemodialysis patients, and its association with health-related quality of life is unknown. We investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of PST in HD patients by assessing changes in depressive symptoms and health related quality of life after six weeks’ PST therapy at a single, hospital-based chronic hemodialysis unit in central Pennsylvania. Thirty-five patients were randomly assigned to either six weekly sessions of PST-Usual Care or Usual Care. Depression, quality of life, and problem-solving ability were measured at baseline and post-treatment. Thirty-three subjects completed the study; one subject died and one subject withdrew due to illness (both randomized to the PST intervention group). At baseline, subjects in each arm were similar except that patients in the intervention group were more likely to have a history of depression (control group (16.6%), intervention group (53.5%). At six weeks, there were no significant differences in mean PHQ and BDI scores between the groups; however, mean change-from-baseline scores were significantly improved in the intervention group relative to the control group. When adjusted for baseline depression scores, mean 6-week BDI and PHQ scores were significantly lower in the intervention group. Results of this pilot study suggest that PST provided to maintenance hemodialysis patients on-site holds promise for reducing depressive symptoms, though more extensive studies need to be conducted

YouTube and Other Web 2.0 Applications for Nursing Education

Web 2.0 applications, such as the popular YouTube™ online video network, may enhance health care students\u27 learning and retention while providing connections with peers and faculty. Today\u27s students are consumers of popular social networking tools, such as Facebook and MySpace, as well as the personal video sharing site, YouTube™. Furthermore, novel cellular 1 phones, such as Apple Computer\u27s© iPhone and the innovative Palm phone, have the capacity to i show You Tube videos, which are now literally a touch away from viewing. The authors set out to I explain Web 2.0 applications and the impact on health care students\u27 education, social networking, collaboration, needs, and wants in today\u27s busy learning and working environments

Peer Acceptance and Friendship as Predictors of Early Adolescents’ Adjustment Across the Middle School Transition

This study examines several aspects of adolescents’ pretransition peer relationships as predictors of their adjustment to middle school. Participants were 365 students (175 boys; 99% Caucasian) involved in the Time 1 (the spring of fifth grade) and Time 2 (the fall of sixth grade) assessments. Adolescents completed measures that assessed peer acceptance, number of friends, the quality of a specific mutual friendship, loneliness, depression, self-esteem, and involvement in school. Academic achievement and absentee data were obtained from student files. Regression analyses indicated that the pretransition peer variables predicted posttransition loneliness, self-esteem, school involvement, and academic achievement. The patterns of prediction varied slightly for each adjustment variable, with the most robust relationship being between peer acceptance and achievement. Results of repeated-measures MANOVAs indicated no differential changes in adjustment across time by gender. Implications for including a peer component in programs that prepare students for the middle school transition are discussed

Peer Acceptance and Friendship as Predictors of Early Adolescents\u27 Adjustment Across the Middle School Transition

This study examines several aspects of adolescents\u27 pretransition peer relationships as predictors of their adjustment to middle school. Participants were 365 students (175 boys; 99% Caucasian) involved in the Time 1 (the spring of fifth grade) and Time 2 (the fall of sixth grade) assessments. Adolescents completed measures that assessed peer acceptance, number of friends, the quality of a specific mutual friendship, loneliness, depression, self-esteem, and involvement in school. Academic achievement and absentee data were obtained from student files. Regression analyses indicated that the pretransition peer variables predicted posttransition loneliness, self-esteem, school involvement, and academic achievement. The patterns of prediction varied slightly for each adjustment variable, with the most robust relationship being between peer acceptance and achievement. Results of repeated-measures MANOVAs indicated no differential changes in adjustment across time by gender. Implications for including a peer component in programs that prepare students for the middle school transition are discussed

The Potential of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Professional Nursing Education

Three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds (VWs), such as Second Life, are actively being explored for their potential use in health care and nursing professional education and even for practice. The relevance of this e-learning innovation on a large scale for teaching students and professionals is yet to be demonstrated and variables influencing adoption, such as increased knowledge, self-directed learning, and peer collaboration, by academics, and health care professionals requires empirical research

Implicit Theories: Elaboration and Extension of the Model

published_or_final_versio

Towards Addressing the Opportunities and Challenges of Web 2.0 for Health and Informatics

Objective: To provide an overview of Web 2.0 and Health 2.0, and so facilitate a widespread discussion of the nature of these concepts and their possible application within the health domain, and implications for health and biomedical informatics and for IMIA. Methods: IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association, has established a Web 2.0 Exploratory Taskforce to bring together interested individuals from within and outside IMIA to explore the nature and potential of Web 2.0 applications. The Taskforce aims to develop background materials and sample uses of Web 2.0 applications, so as to propose specific lines of action for the IMIA Board and General Assembly. This paper provides a brief overview of Web 2.0 and related concepts, and examples of general and healthspecific Web 2.0 applications. Some examples of the issues, challenges and opportunities are introduced, to set the scene for a wider dialogue on if, how, and how best, IMIA, and the wider health and informatics communities, should use these new applications and approaches. Results and conclusions: This brief paper provides an introduction to, and overview of, the many issues involved in considering the application of Web 2.0 to health and informatics. All interested individuals and organisations are invited to use this as a starting point for engaging in wider discussion and contributing to the Taskforce and to IMIA\u27s future. Keywords IMIA, health informatics, medical informatics,IA,

Social Dominance Orientation Moderates the Effectiveness of Mindset Messages

In this work, we examine if difference in social dominance orientation (SDO) moderate the effectiveness of mindsets of intelligence messages. We suggest that SDO is a foundational ideological belief system, on which individuals vary, that maintains the desire to endorse fixed beliefs about the nature of human intelligence. Thus, attempts to change individuals\u27 mindsets should be met with resistance from those who strongly endorse the social dominance ideology-individuals high on SDO. In contrast, individuals low on SDO are less likely to use mindsets of intelligence to justify an ideological belief system, and thus mindset manipulations should be effective for them. We test these predictions across three experimental studies (NStudy1= 271, NStudy2= 207, NStudy3= 313). Across the studies, we find that individuals who are high, relative to low, on SDO have more fixed beliefs about the nature of intelligence and show smaller effects of manipulations of mindsets. However, when comparing to a control condition, there was no evidence that high SDO participants resisted the growth message that contradicts their ideology more than the fixed one that supports it; additionally, low SDO participants showed heightened responsiveness to a fixed message. We discuss implications for theoretical advances in our understanding of mindsets