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To understand the context and environment of the alumni while in foster care and their influence on adult outcomes, this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section deals with foster care research. Prior research informing this study's research questions and hypotheses is discussed. This section begins by presenting findings on the impact of child maltreatment on later development. The next section looks at Landsverk's conceptual framework. This model describing critical factors impacting youth development in foster care is presented. The third section examines developmental theories and conceptual models. Theories and conceptual models explaining child growth and development and informing the Northwest Alumni Study are discussed. The last section looks at esearch questions and hypotheses. This chapter concludes by presenting the primary and secondary research questions and hypotheses.

This chapter discusses the main purpose of the book, which is to provide a research methods textbook that is focused solely on palliative care. The book aims to contribute to an increase in both the quality and the quantity of palliative care research. Ethical issues regarding research in palliative care are examined, and a brief outline of the contents of the book is included.

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. It also serves as an introduction to the most useful and frequently used methods in palliative care research. The discussion indicates that the popularity of these methods may be because they are simple to use and unproblematic. Although there are a number of research methods given in this chapter, it is not a ‘how to do’ text.

This chapter discusses other ethical and practical issues in palliative care research from the perspective of qualitative research, and serves as a complementary discussion to Chapter 2. The discussion also aims to help researchers think through some of the challenges posed in qualitative research projects, so that they are not defeated by these challenges and are able to work from a clear ethical base.

This chapter reviews the progress that has been made in research into global palliative care development during the first decade of the new millennium. It sets out the work that has been done by key non-governmental organizations to promote palliative care internationally, focusing particularly on the years after 2000. It then considers some innovative empirical studies on palliative care development that have provided data to map provision at the national level, sometimes with a focus on world regions. It highlights the scale of the research challenge involved in producing and maintaining an accurate analysis of the global state of palliative care. It goes on to explore the role of funding agencies and the extent to which palliative care has been ‘framed’ within international policy discourse. Above all it emphasizes the still-limited progress that has been made in integrating palliative care within the architecture of global, regional, and national policy-making.

This chapter discusses developments in research and policy on care, based on the recent experiences of the Nordic social democratic welfare regimes, which comparative research has concluded are especially women friendly. Despite the proclaimed ‘woman-friendly’ nature of the Nordic welfare states, this research has nevertheless had little impact on either rational economic approaches to the study of care or on approaches to the evaluation of care-related services. It is argued that theory and practice derived from the emerging feminist ‘ethic of care’ may provide the basis for fruitful new interdisciplinary and international approaches to the study and understanding of care. Moreover, these new approaches may also have the potential to engage with, and challenge, the mainstream economic and managerial discourses that continue to dominate research into care policy and service planning.

In the UK, research and development (R&D) carried out by organiszations and individuals is subject to the research governance framework for health and social care. This framework, which is overseen by the relevant government department, aims to enhance the promotion and quality of R&D, and to ensure a sustainable research culture. Research governance compliance criteria include the need for independent scientific review of the research proposal; ethical approval; and sponsorship and supervision by responsible health and social care professionals. This chapter examines the ethical implications of the patient's autonomy and consent within the framework, alongside those of monitoring, accountability, leadership, and management. It also considers shortcomings in the conduct of R&D and subsequent evidence-based practice.

Throughout the legislative odyssey of federal policy on comparative effectiveness research from 2002 to 2008, the specifics of the policy took many different forms. While opponents to federally-mandated comparative effectiveness research objected to the policy entirely, proponents of the policy were divided as to where the function should be housed (inside the federal government or outside); how it should be financed (congressional appropriations or fees levied on public and private health insurers and health plans), and how it should be governed (how much representation should each stakeholder have on a governing board). Every specification has its advantages and disadvantages. The two federal mandates currently in force for comparative effectiveness research—the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act and the 2010 Affordable Care Act—differ markedly in placement, financing, governance, research priority-setting methods, and processes, illustrating the fact that every alternative is a balance between advantages and disadvantages.

This chapter discusses the different quality of life (QOL) issues in palliative surgery, and also attempts to answer questions about the relationship of QOL and palliative care and QOL assessment. It explores the concepts of outcome, palliative care, and QOL, and the procedure in measuring QOL, examines specific measurement problems in the terminal/palliative situation, and determines if the concept of QOL might enhance care. The chapter concludes that palliation research can profit a lot from the QOL movement. Although there are no ready-made solutions, this signifies the urgency for adopting a scientific and empirical orientation to palliative care research.

Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) provide care that includes tasks traditionally done by physicians. APRNs combine the holistic nursing care model with additional practitioner training. Research shows that APRN care is at least as effective as physician care, contrary to the claims of some physicians and their organizations. Hollywood depictions tend to suggest that APRNs are merely skilled assistants to physicians. Other portrayals show disdain; consider a joking suggestion on Disney’s Lab Rats in 2013 that one character was a nurse practitioner because he had flunked out of medical school. Other shows have suggested that ambitious nurses aim for medical school. Some news stories have given a sense of APRN practice, but APRNs are usually ignored as health experts. Other press accounts have wrongly suggested that APRNs can treat only minor problems. The news and advertising media often reinforce the idea that practitioner care is provided only by “doctors.”