Nurse-patient communication in cancer care. A review of the literature.

Patients with cancer seem to experience distress particularly in the first period after diagnosis, and are likely to develop an affective disorder in the first 2 to 3 months. Communicative behaviors of nurses seem to play an important role in meeting the cognitive and affective needs of patients with cancer. This review of the literature examines the communicative behaviors of nurses during care activities with patients who have cancer.

Gender differences in fatigue: biopsychosocial factors relating to fatigue in men and women.

Background: Fatigue is a common problem, which is found more frequently among women than men. To date, neither the etiology of fatigue nor the factors that explain the gender difference in its incidence are still fully understood.

Methods: In a sample of men (n = 4,681) and women (n = 4,698) (age range, 15-64 years) in the Dutch National Survey of Morbidity and Interventions in General Practice, the gender differences in the underlying biological, psychological, and social factors of fatigue were analyzed.

Maternity care in The Netherlands: the changing home birth rate.

In 1965 two-thirds of all births in The Netherlands occurred at home. In the next 25 years, that situation became reversed with more than two-thirds of births occurring in hospital and fewer than one-third at home. Several factors have influenced that change, including the introduction of short-stay hospital birth, hospital facilities for independent midwives, increased referral rates from primary to secondary care, changes in the share of the different professionals involved in maternity care, medical technology, and demographic changes.

Pain and disability in patients with osteoarthritis of hip or knee: the relationship with articular, kinesiological, and psychological characteristics.

Objective: To determine to what extent articular, kinesiological, and psychological factors each contribute to pain and disability in patients with osteoarthritis (OA), after controlling for other factors.

Methods: Cross sectional study among 200 patients with OA of the hip or knee. Dependent variables include pain (visual analog scale), self-reported disability (questionnaire), and observed disability (performance of standardized tasks).

Survival and psychosocial adjustment to stoma surgery and nonstoma bowel resection: a 4-year follow-up.

A prospective 4-year follow-up study was conducted to compare the psychosocial adjustment process and survival rate of 59 stoma patients with 64 bowel-resected nonstoma patients. Adjustment was assessed at 4 months. 1 year, and 4 years after surgery by the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale, a self-report questionnaire (PAIS-SR).

Hospital or general practice? Results of two experiments limiting the number of self referrals of patients with injuries to hospitals in The Netherlands.

Objective: To describe the results of two Dutch experiments aimed at limiting the number of self referrals to accident and emergency (A&E) departments of a newly opened hospital.

Methods: Basic design for both field experiments was a one group test-retest study, with the opening of a new hospital being the experimental factor. Data refer (1) to the number of patient contacts for acute somatic and non-somatic professional help with traumata and intoxications filled in on contact registration forms, and (2) to patient reports based on written questionnaires and interviews by telephone.

Prospective evaluation of psychosocial adaptation to stoma surgery: the role of self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy, one's expectations regarding the ability to perform some specific task, was studied prospectively in the adaptation process of stoma patients. One week after surgery, stoma-related self-efficacy was assessed in 59 patients (26 cancer patients and 33 patients with benign diseases) who had undergone intestinal stoma surgery. Twenty-nine items concerning self-efficacy were formulated.

Exploring the iceberg of morbidity: a comparison of different survey methods for assessing the occurrence of everyday illness.

This paper examines problems in measuring the occurrence of acute symptoms of ill health. Health interview surveys and health diaries often lead to different results. Two key hypotheses assume that: 1, interviews using checklists are more sensitive to the respondent's psychological distress than are the open-ended questions of health diaries; and 2, health diaries demand high levels of compliance leading to underreporting of symptoms.

Psychosocial adaptation to stoma surgery: a review.

During the last decade strong improvements have been made in the medical care of patients with a digestive tract stoma, particularly with regard to nursing skills and to the quality of collecting material for faecal products. Scientific investigation into the psychosocial adjustment of patients after stoma surgery has intensified as well, giving us indications for quality of life. These developments induced a review of the actual state of affairs in psychological issues.

Determinants of the help-seeking process: Goldberg and Huxley's first level and first filter.

This paper discusses minor psychiatric morbidity in the community and its relation to help-seeking. The research is aimed at identifying the demographic and social characteristics that enhance the likelihood of minor psychiatric morbidity, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire, and to reveal how these determinants relate to health status. In the second stage of the study, the same characteristics are related to their effect on the decision to decision to consult a general practitioner and, specifically, on presenting psycho-social problems to the GP.