| 1. |
- Englund, Ann-Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Assisting teens with asthma to take command
- 2006
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. - 0283-9318 .- 1471-6712. ; 20:2, s. 193-201
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In English To meet and work with teenagers may be a challenge for caregivers as adolescence is a period when youths try to establish autonomy. Although asthma is an increasing problem worldwide, few studies have addressed professional caregivers' motives and actions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe professional caregivers' strategies in their work with teenagers with asthma. Grounded theory, inspired by Glaser, was used to uncover the phenomenon. The informants were seven professional caregivers who worked at an eight-day asthma camp for teenagers in Sweden. Participant observations and interviews were used, and the first author collected the data and participated in the activities. Findings show that professional caregivers' core concern is to assist teenagers with asthma to take command. This core concern gives rise to five strategies: showing respect, being at hand, promoting own responsibility, promoting to exceed boundaries and promoting reflections. In professional caregivers' attempt to assist teenagers to take command some differences are seen in the way they support boys and girls. One conclusion drawn from our study is that the provisional theory of 'Assisting teenagers with asthma to take command' is not only suitable for professional caregivers working at asthma camps; it may, in some degree, also be used as a source of inspiration for professional caregivers in other settings.
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| 2. |
- Dalheim Englund, Ann-Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Having a child with asthma : quality of life for Swedish parents
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Nursing. - : Wiley. - 0962-1067 .- 1365-2702. ; 13:3, s. 386-395
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease. Childhood asthma contributes significantly to morbidity among children and has a significant impact on the quality of life (QoL) and daily routines of both the children and their parents. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate how Swedish parents of children with asthma experience their QoL, and to investigate whether there were differences concerning QoL between parents within the same family. The purpose was also to investigate possible connections between their QoL and background variables. METHOD: A total of 371 parents of children with asthma (57% mothers and 43% fathers) participated in the study. The Paediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality Of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ) was used to measure the parents' QoL, i.e. how the child's asthma interferes with the parents' normal activities and how it has made them feel. RESULTS: The findings show that most parents of children with asthma evaluated their QoL as close to the positive end of the scale, and there was close agreement in the scoring between parents within the same family. Significant associations were found between parents' lower QoL outcome and living in the North of Sweden. There were also significant associations between fathers' lower QoL outcome and having a child younger than 13 years of age and mothers' lower QoL outcome and having a child with severe asthma. Although the result shows that a child's asthma did not influence the parents' QoL to a greater degree, it is still important for healthcare workers to help these parents to sustain and improve their well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that they just evaluated their QoL during the preceding week only, and did so at the time when their children were being treated with asthma medication, might have influenced the results in a positive direction.
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| 3. |
- Dalheim-Englund, Ann-Charlotte
(författare)
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Skydda och frigöra : en studie av föräldrar till barn med astma och av professionella vårdare
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim: The overall aim of this thesis is, from the point of view of parents of a child with asthma, to describe meanings of being a parent, parents’ quality of life, and to describe how family relations are influenced by their child’s disease. The aim is also to increase the understanding of what strategies professional caregivers use in their work with teenagers suffering from asthma. Methods: Informants in the three qualitative studies were 29 parents (17 mothers and 12 fathers) of children with asthma and 7 professional caregivers. Informants in a quantitative quality of life study were 371 parents. The data collections were undertaken by means of interviews, observations and a questionnaire. The data was analysed by means of a phenomenological-hermeneutic method, grounded theory and statistics. Results: A meaning of being a parent of a child with asthma is to live a strenuous life and to fear that the child might die during a severe asthma attack. The parents’ actions involve both protecting and liberating and their feelings involve sadness as well as acceptance. Mostly the mothers act in a protecting manner and express feelings of sadness. The fathers mostly act in a liberating manner and express feelings of acceptance. The core concern in families of a child with asthma was found to be disease-engendered uncertainty. The mothers describe that feelings of uncertainty always are present owing to the unpredictability of the disease. These feelings make the mothers more or less available for family members. For the child with asthma the mothers’ experience that they are always available. Thus, control and tight bonds characterize the mother-child relationships. The mothers’ constant availability for the child with asthma is experienced to lead to a decreased availability for other family members and theses relationships are characterised by feelings of forsakenness and lack of understanding. However, when parents of children with asthma estimate their quality of life by a questionnaire, they estimate it as comparatively high. In the same family the parents scoring of separate items was to a large extent similar. The result also shows that professional caregivers’ central concern is to assist teenagers with asthma to conquer life. This gives rise to five strategies: showing respect, being at hand, promoting personal sense of responsibility, promoting exceeding boundaries, and promoting reflections. In professional caregivers’ attempt to assist teenagers to conquer life some differences are seen in the way they support boys and girls. Conclusion: One conclusion drawn from this thesis is that being a parent of a child with asthma involves feelings of uncertainty. In meeting the parents in question, caregivers should reflect upon these feelings and consider how the parents could be assisted. As mothers and fathers describe different attitudes in relation to the care of the child, it is also important to reflect upon how professional caregivers can assist the balance between the mothers’ protecting and the fathers’ liberating attitudes. It is also important for professional caregivers to reflect upon how they meet teenage girls and boys with asthma respectively, and to take their needs and understanding of the situation into consideration.
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| 4. |
- Englund, Ann-Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Being the parent of a child with asthma
- 2001
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Ingår i: Pediatric Nursing. - : Jannetti Publications, Inc.. - 0097-9805. ; 27:4, s. 365-373
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to describe what it means to be parents of a child with asthma. Unstructured interviews were carried out with 12 mothers and 12 fathers of children with asthma living in Sweden. The parents' accounts were analyzed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. The results revealed that parents were living a strenuous life and their actions involved both protecting and liberating. Parents also reported feelings of sadness and acceptance. In most cases, mothers acted in a protecting manner and expressed feelings of sadness; fathers acted in a liberating manner and expressed feelings of acceptance. To gain a deeper understanding of the parents' actions and feelings, study results were interpreted through philosophical perspectives described by Ruddick (1989), Mayeroff (1965), and Hegel (1975). These interpretations show that the feelings and actions of these parents exist in a dialectical relation with one another. Results emphasize the importance of a good partnership between the parents and the nurse, where the nurse shows consideration for the parents' unique actions and feelings and understands and supports parents in the care of their child with asthma.
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| 5. |
- Rydström, Ingela, et al.
(författare)
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Asthma--quality of life for Swedish children.
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Nursing. - : Wiley. - 0962-1067 .- 1365-2702. ; 14:6, s. 739-749
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe how Swedish children with asthma experience their QoL and to search for possible associations between their experience of QoL and some determinants. BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic disorder that can restrict a child's life, physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually, and this has an impact on a child's quality of life (QoL). METHODS: Two hundred and twenty-six children with asthma (37% girls and 63% boys) and 371 parents of these children participated in the study. The Paediatric Asthma Quality Of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) was used to measure the children's QoL. This questionnaire reveals how the children's asthma interferes with their normal activities, their symptoms and how this interference has made them feel. RESULTS: The findings show that most children with asthma estimated their QoL towards the positive end of the scale. The children reported more impairment in the domain of activities than in emotions and symptoms. The most commonly restricted activity was the children's ability to run. Significant associations were found between a higher QoL outcome and being a boy, as well as living in the south of Sweden. A higher QoL was also found in children with mothers older than 40 years of age and in children with cohabiting parents. It was also associated with their fathers' QoL in a positive direction. CONCLUSIONS: It is important that children with asthma will maintain a high QoL. In this study the children were being treated with asthma medication when they evaluated their QoL. Perhaps this fact might have influenced the results in a positive direction. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The findings of our study underline the importance of accurate nursing assessment including background variables of the children. Nurses also have to be aware that some of the children in the study have a low QoL and these children must not be forgotten. In addition, as caring tends to focus on the patients' limitations, another important issue for nurses is to try to discover those aspects in a child's daily life that contribute to a high QoL in order to improve and maintain the child's wellbeing.
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| 6. |
- Rydström, Ingela, et al.
(författare)
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Being a child with asthma
- 1999
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Ingår i: Pediatric Nursing. - : Jannetti Publications, Inc.. - 0097-9805. ; 25:6, s. 589-596
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aimed to illuminate what it is like being a child with asthma. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 14 children with asthma in Sweden. The data were analyzed using a phenomenologic hermeneutic method. The results showed that the children strived to live normal lives. Sometimes they felt that they were participants in everyday life; other times they felt like outsiders. As participants, they felt confident in their own knowledge, in other people's wish to help, and that medicine would help. As outsiders, they felt deprived, guilty, lonely, anxious, and fearful. Results were interpreted from an ecosophic as well as an existential perspective.
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| 7. |
- Rydström, Ingela, et al.
(författare)
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Relations governed by uncertainty : part of life of families of a child with asthma.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Pediatric Nursing. - : W.B. Saunders Co.. - 0882-5963 .- 1532-8449. ; 19:2, s. 85-94
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study identifies what influences and characterizes family relations in families of a child with asthma. Seventeen mothers of children aged between 6 and 16 years participated in audio-taped in-depth interviews. The researchers were inspired by grounded theory in data collection and data analysis. The core category that developed was being governed by disease-engendered uncertainty. The category mothers' availability was seen in two dimensions. The first dimension, mothers' being available for the child with asthma, created two subcategories: 1. control and 2. tight bonds. The second dimension, mothers' being less available for other family members, also created two subcategories: 3. being forsaken and 4. lack of understanding. Nursing implications are discussed in relation to the findings.
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