Nursing Faculty Workload: Balancing Fiscal Responsibility and Faculty Satisfaction.

Background: Nursing faculty and nursing program administrators share the goal of equitable faculty workload. Faculty teaching assignments and other academic workload can affect productivity and faculty satisfaction.

Problem: Models for workload calculation need to account for multiple factors including mission, faculty position and rank, faculty expertise, and financial resources.

Development of the Huntington disease family concerns and strategies survey from focus group data.

Health concerns and management strategies among families of young and middle-age adults with Huntington's disease (HD) are unknown. This study developed and tested psychometric properties of the Huntington Disease Family Concerns and Strategies Survey (HDFCSS). Focus group data from 91 adult family members were used to develop content.

Living in the doldrums: The lived experience of dispiritedness in later life.

This phenomenological investigation sought to enhance understanding of the experience of dispiritedness by providing a rich and vivid description of the essential structure of the experience in later life. van Manen's hermeneutic-phenomenological method was used to analyze the transcribed texts of 11 individuals who identified themselves as being in "later life" (mean age = 73, age range = 52 to 93) and who participated in phenomenological interviews focusing on describing the experience of dispiritedness. Statements describing the experience of dispiritedness were sorted into 21 thematic categories that were synthesized into 7 essential themes that described the structure of the lived experience of dispiritedness in later life as Arising From Life's Trying Transitions, Feeling Disengaged From Meaning, Experiencing a Restricting Loss of Vigor and Animation, Feeling Forlorn Bewilderment, Moving Between Engagement and Disengagement, Remaining Faithful to Enduring Connections, and Engaging in Day-to-Day Living.

The emotional experiences of family carers in Huntington disease.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study conducted to examine the emotional experience of caregiving by family carers of people with Huntington disease and to describe strategies they used to deal with that experience.

Background: Huntington disease, commonly diagnosed in young to middle adulthood, is an inherited single gene disorder involving loss of cognitive, motor and neuropsychiatric function. Many family members become caregivers as well as continuing as parents and wage earners.

Experiences of teens living in the shadow of Huntington Disease.

Research on families with Huntington Disease (HD) has primarily focused on adult decision-making surrounding predictive genetic testing and caregiver stress. Little is known about the experiences of teens living in these families. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 32 teens living in families with HD.

"No one else sees the difference: "family members' perceptions of changes in persons with preclinical Huntington disease.

Manifestations of Huntington disease (HD) prior to clinical diagnosis are not well understood. This study documents adult family members' perceptions of changes and their attempts to manage these changes in persons who had received a positive predictive molecular HD test prior to clinical diagnosis. Data were obtained from 19 adult family members in six focus groups in the US and Canada and one individual interview in the US.

Depression and dispiritedness in later life: a 'gray drizzle of horror' isn't inevitable.

The misconception that aging and depression are inevitably entwined is not only common but also dangerous. It can lead to a variety of adverse events, which might have been avoided had the depression been recognized and treated. However, recognizing depression in older adults can be difficult as it may present differently in this population than it does in younger adults.