- Library Home /
- Search Collections /
- Open Collections /
- Browse Collections /
- UBC Theses and Dissertations /
- The pain cues of cognitively impaired elderly people:...
Open Collections
UBC Theses and Dissertations
UBC Theses and Dissertations
The pain cues of cognitively impaired elderly people: an ethnoscientific study of gerontological nurses’ perspectives Parke, Belinda Bernice
Abstract
Many gaps exist in our ability to detect and assess pain in cognitively impaired elderly people. In this study, an ethnoscientific approach was used to access gerontological nurses' knowledge of pain in the cognitively impaired elderly. In keeping with an ethnoscientific approach, judgement sampling, a nonprobability method for selection of knowledgable informants was used to select six gerontological nurse participants. All informants were over the age of thirty and had between six and fifteen years of experience working with cognitively impaired elderly people. Two data collection procedures were used; story telling interviews and retrospective chart reviews. The story telling interviews involved a systematic exploration of gerontological nurses' observations and perceptions caring for cognitively impaired elderly people in pain. Formal elicitation procedures were used as the framework for the interviews. As such, both the questions and the answers were discovered by the nurse informants. The second data source, retrospective chart reviews, focused on the written language other nurses used to describe pain. The chart review was intended to give breadth to the data that was collected in the interviews. Twenty-one charts of cognitively impaired elderly people were reviewed, sixteen were included in the study and five were excluded. A process of constant comparative analysis was used to determine the meanings nurses attached to the words and phrases they used to describe their observations. The findings from this study revealed that nurses use three pain cue groupings, overt behaviour, appearance and sounds. In addition, the findings revealed that the gerontological nurses in this study were able to integrate "knowing the patient" with knowing by intuitive perception. Together, each method of knowing enhanced the nurses ability to infer that pain was a problem for an impaired elder.
Item Metadata
Title |
The pain cues of cognitively impaired elderly people: an ethnoscientific study of gerontological nurses’ perspectives
|
Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
Date Issued |
1995
|
Description |
Many gaps exist in our ability to detect and
assess pain in cognitively impaired elderly people. In
this study, an ethnoscientific approach was used to
access gerontological nurses' knowledge of pain in the
cognitively impaired elderly. In keeping with an
ethnoscientific approach, judgement sampling, a nonprobability method for selection of knowledgable
informants was used to select six gerontological nurse
participants. All informants were over the age of
thirty and had between six and fifteen years of
experience working with cognitively impaired elderly
people.
Two data collection procedures were used; story
telling interviews and retrospective chart reviews.
The story telling interviews involved a systematic
exploration of gerontological nurses' observations and
perceptions caring for cognitively impaired elderly
people in pain. Formal elicitation procedures were
used as the framework for the interviews. As such,
both the questions and the answers were discovered by
the nurse informants.
The second data source, retrospective chart
reviews, focused on the written language other nurses
used to describe pain. The chart review was intended
to give breadth to the data that was collected in the
interviews. Twenty-one charts of cognitively impaired
elderly people were reviewed, sixteen were included in
the study and five were excluded. A process of
constant comparative analysis was used to determine the
meanings nurses attached to the words and phrases they
used to describe their observations.
The findings from this study revealed that nurses
use three pain cue groupings, overt behaviour,
appearance and sounds. In addition, the findings
revealed that the gerontological nurses in this study
were able to integrate "knowing the patient" with
knowing by intuitive perception. Together, each method
of knowing enhanced the nurses ability to infer that
pain was a problem for an impaired elder.
|
Extent |
4392249 bytes
|
Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
|
Language |
eng
|
Date Available |
2009-01-14
|
Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
|
DOI |
10.14288/1.0086742
|
URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
Graduation Date |
1995-05
|
Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.