Ros Bramwell | University of Chester (original) (raw)
Papers by Ros Bramwell
Purpose: Caring for people with cancer or an intellectual disability (ID) is stressful: little is... more Purpose: Caring for people with cancer or an intellectual disability (ID) is stressful: little is known about the combined impact of caring for cancer patients with an ID, though this is expected to be especially challenging.
Method: Eighty-three nurses, working in oncology or a related field (i.e. palliative care) were recruited. Perceptions of caring for patients with and without an ID were measured, alongside potentially confounding information about participant demographic characteristics and perceived stress.
Results: Participants felt less comfortable communicating with patients with an ID about their illness (F(1,82) = 59.52, p < 0.001), more reliant on a caregiver for communication (F(1,82) = 26.29, p < 0.001), and less confident that the patient's needs would be identified (F(1,82) = 42.03, p < 0.001) and met (F(1,81) = 62.90, p < 0.001). Participants also believed that caring for this patient group would induce more stress, compared with patients without an ID (F(1,81) = 31.592, p < 0.001). Previous experience working with ID patient groups appears to mitigate some perceptions about providing care to this population.
Conclusions: Caring for cancer patients with an ID may intensify this, already difficult, role. Through training and knowledge exchange, oncology nurse's confidence in communication, providing appropriate care, and positivity towards this patient group may be improved.
Increased life expectancy has led to an increase in diagnoses of chronic illness in people with a... more Increased life expectancy has led to an increase in diagnoses of chronic illness in people with an intellectual disability; despite this increase, research about the psychological impact is rare. This review explored the psychosocial experiences of chronic illness in adults with an intellectual disability, revealing potential predictors and moderators of these experiences.
Online databases were systematically searched to identify relevant literature, using predefined inclusion criteria. Of the 25,058 titles initially identified, 4 were included, that is, those collecting data on people with an intellectual disability and diagnosed with cancer (n = 2), chronic pain (n = 1) and diabetes (n = 1).
Narrative synthesis of the data identified six themes, namely, (1) delayed diagnosis, (2) information, communication and understanding, (3) negative psychological consequences, (4) negative physical consequences, (5) social perception and (6) social support.
There are unmet needs within this population, including a lack of assistance in understanding their illness. A substantial gap in the literature should be addressed through further empirical work.
Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing, 1999
Objective: to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills ... more Objective: to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills in relation to breast feeding.
Midwifery, 2000
Objective: to undertake a critical analysis of the content of six tools, which have been designed... more Objective: to undertake a critical analysis of the content of six tools, which have been designed to evaluate the breast-feeding interaction.
British Journal of Midwifery, 2001
ABSTRACT Water-based exercise has been shown to be a ‘safe’ form of activity for women during pre... more ABSTRACT Water-based exercise has been shown to be a ‘safe’ form of activity for women during pregnancy. This study investigates the level of involvement midwives have or would like to have in the provision of aquanatal classes. Postal questionnaires were used to investigate midwives' training for, and experience of running aquanatal exercise classes at four hospital sits in North West England. Of the 506 questionnaires distributed, 174 were returned. In answer to the question ‘who should run aquanatal classes?’, 94 midwives (54%) agreed that midwives were the ideal personnel to carry out aquanatal classes. However, only 41 midwives were involved in running aquanatal sessions and of those, just 25 had received any training. Of these, 15 felt that their training had been inadequate. It is recommended that a core group of exercise, midwifery and physiotherapy professionals should be responsible for agreeing a standard programme of education on aquanatal exercise for health professionals.
Midwifery, 2000
Objective: to test the hypothesis that midwives who had completed the 20 -hour WHO/ UNICEF Breast... more Objective: to test the hypothesis that midwives who had completed the 20 -hour WHO/ UNICEF Breastfeeding Management Course would score signi¢cantly higher on a validated, quantitative measure of breast-feeding support skills, the Breastfeeding Support SkillsTool (BeSST), than a control group of midwives who had not undertaken the course.
Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing, 1999
Objective to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills i... more Objective to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills in relation to breast feeding. DESIGN: the development of the tool followed progressive stages, generating a pool of questionnaire items and then subjecting them to a series of rigorous ...
Purpose: Caring for people with cancer or an intellectual disability (ID) is stressful: little is... more Purpose: Caring for people with cancer or an intellectual disability (ID) is stressful: little is known about the combined impact of caring for cancer patients with an ID, though this is expected to be especially challenging.
Method: Eighty-three nurses, working in oncology or a related field (i.e. palliative care) were recruited. Perceptions of caring for patients with and without an ID were measured, alongside potentially confounding information about participant demographic characteristics and perceived stress.
Results: Participants felt less comfortable communicating with patients with an ID about their illness (F(1,82) = 59.52, p < 0.001), more reliant on a caregiver for communication (F(1,82) = 26.29, p < 0.001), and less confident that the patient's needs would be identified (F(1,82) = 42.03, p < 0.001) and met (F(1,81) = 62.90, p < 0.001). Participants also believed that caring for this patient group would induce more stress, compared with patients without an ID (F(1,81) = 31.592, p < 0.001). Previous experience working with ID patient groups appears to mitigate some perceptions about providing care to this population.
Conclusions: Caring for cancer patients with an ID may intensify this, already difficult, role. Through training and knowledge exchange, oncology nurse's confidence in communication, providing appropriate care, and positivity towards this patient group may be improved.
Increased life expectancy has led to an increase in diagnoses of chronic illness in people with a... more Increased life expectancy has led to an increase in diagnoses of chronic illness in people with an intellectual disability; despite this increase, research about the psychological impact is rare. This review explored the psychosocial experiences of chronic illness in adults with an intellectual disability, revealing potential predictors and moderators of these experiences.
Online databases were systematically searched to identify relevant literature, using predefined inclusion criteria. Of the 25,058 titles initially identified, 4 were included, that is, those collecting data on people with an intellectual disability and diagnosed with cancer (n = 2), chronic pain (n = 1) and diabetes (n = 1).
Narrative synthesis of the data identified six themes, namely, (1) delayed diagnosis, (2) information, communication and understanding, (3) negative psychological consequences, (4) negative physical consequences, (5) social perception and (6) social support.
There are unmet needs within this population, including a lack of assistance in understanding their illness. A substantial gap in the literature should be addressed through further empirical work.
Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing, 1999
Objective: to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills ... more Objective: to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills in relation to breast feeding.
Midwifery, 2000
Objective: to undertake a critical analysis of the content of six tools, which have been designed... more Objective: to undertake a critical analysis of the content of six tools, which have been designed to evaluate the breast-feeding interaction.
British Journal of Midwifery, 2001
ABSTRACT Water-based exercise has been shown to be a ‘safe’ form of activity for women during pre... more ABSTRACT Water-based exercise has been shown to be a ‘safe’ form of activity for women during pregnancy. This study investigates the level of involvement midwives have or would like to have in the provision of aquanatal classes. Postal questionnaires were used to investigate midwives' training for, and experience of running aquanatal exercise classes at four hospital sits in North West England. Of the 506 questionnaires distributed, 174 were returned. In answer to the question ‘who should run aquanatal classes?’, 94 midwives (54%) agreed that midwives were the ideal personnel to carry out aquanatal classes. However, only 41 midwives were involved in running aquanatal sessions and of those, just 25 had received any training. Of these, 15 felt that their training had been inadequate. It is recommended that a core group of exercise, midwifery and physiotherapy professionals should be responsible for agreeing a standard programme of education on aquanatal exercise for health professionals.
Midwifery, 2000
Objective: to test the hypothesis that midwives who had completed the 20 -hour WHO/ UNICEF Breast... more Objective: to test the hypothesis that midwives who had completed the 20 -hour WHO/ UNICEF Breastfeeding Management Course would score signi¢cantly higher on a validated, quantitative measure of breast-feeding support skills, the Breastfeeding Support SkillsTool (BeSST), than a control group of midwives who had not undertaken the course.
Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing, 1999
Objective to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills i... more Objective to develop and validate a reliable tool which will effectively assess clinical skills in relation to breast feeding. DESIGN: the development of the tool followed progressive stages, generating a pool of questionnaire items and then subjecting them to a series of rigorous ...