Y.O.O. Rock Columbia County: development of a volunteer reference guide for families, children, and youth.

Topic:  Y.O.O.

The Challenge Model: examining resilience in Pelzer's A Child Called "It".

The rapidly emerging field of positive psychology has yielded theories, research, and best practice standards that may complement the work of nursing professionals as they assess and build upon individuals' unique areas of strength in the context of daily hassles, major life events, and exceptional circumstances. In this article, we summarize Wolin and Wolin's Challenge Model and illustrate its potential usefulness as a tool for examining resilience in pediatric patients. Through our own teaching and consultation experiences, we have found that the pairing of the Wolins' clinical model of human psychology and Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" provides a salient means of furthering current and prospective professionals' empathic regard for young patients and clients by promoting a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of children who face adversity.

Understanding hospitality house guests' needs: a brief case report.

A.E. Kazak's (2006) call to develop theory-driven and empirically supported programs aimed at strengthening the competencies of families affected by pediatric illness applies to both medical and nonmedical facilities and institutions that care for pediatric patients and their loved ones.

Maslow's needs hierarchy as a framework for evaluating hospitality houses' resources and services.

As hospitality houses welcome greater numbers of families and families requiring longer stays, they do so in the absence of a widely accepted theory to guide their understanding of guests' needs and evaluations of how well they meet those needs. We propose A. Maslow's (1970) Hierarchy of Needs as a conceptual framework for understanding what makes a hospitality house a home for families of pediatric patients and for guiding the activities of hospitality houses' boards of directors, staff, volunteers, and donors.

Prospective nurses' appraisals of screening for child neglect in primary care settings.

Screening for child neglect in primary care settings is a well-recognized, though largely untapped, resource in the campaign to prevent this pervasive childhood morbidity. Using a contemporary cognitive appraisal model as a conceptual guide, this study evaluated 71 upper-level undergraduate nursing students' thoughts about their future professional responsibility to screen children and families for child neglect. Seventy-one upper-level undergraduate nursing students voluntarily and independently completed a brief, 10-minute survey during a regularly scheduled class meeting.

Coping with the pediatric anogenital exam.

Purpose: To focus on children's and adult guardians' anticipatory and acute attempts to cope with the pediatric anogenital exam.

Methods: A sample of 40 girls (ages 8-15) and a separate sample of 109 adult guardians who accompanied children to the medical clinic rated their use of specific coping strategies on a 5-point Likert scale both pre- and postexam.

Findings: Overall, participants reported relatively high levels of active coping strategies and relatively low levels of passive coping responses throughout the medical encounter.

Identifying competence in the context of the pediatric anogenital exam.

Problem: Appraisals of and concerns about the pediatric anogenital exam in order to promote a better understanding of predisposing factors that may underlie some people's adjustment to these exceptional circumstances.

Methods: Thirty-three girls ages 8-15 and 82 adult guardians rated their acute exam appraisals and concerns using a 5-point Likert-type scale. Data were collected immediately after the anogenital exam at a pediatric outpatient clinic specializing in medical evaluations following allegations of child sexual abuse.

Forensic anogenital exam interventions: potential contributions of cognitive appraisal theory.

This manuscript proposes that Smith and Lazarus's cognitive appraisal theory offers a useful conceptual guide for exploring the mechanisms underlying psychoeducation's apparent efficacy at reducing children's forensic anogenital exam distress. After presenting an overview of Smith and Lazarus's cognitive emotional relational theory of emotions, the authors suggest how this model of cognition-emotion associations might inform the refinement and evaluation of current preparatory interventions as well as the design of future patient/family education programs. Empirical evidence from the broader pediatric literature and direct observations of children's anogenital exam experiences suggest how cognitive appraisal theory translates into clinical research and practice.