JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING EDUCATION (CHILDHOOD ILLNESS).
Contributors: Temple University.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 158
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The basic problem of this study was to describe the current status of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The aim of this study was to derive implications for nursing education.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is a leading chronic illness in children, a complex disease with attendant physiological and psychosocial problems and treatment regimens which impact directly on pediatric nursing care and nursing education. Three distinct types of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and current treatment modalities were described. The cause(s) of the three types of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is still unknown and the therapeutic program is supportive, not curative. A pervasive problem is the chronic pain associated with the disease.

Three theories of pain were described. The principal focus of the specificity and pattern theories accounted for a neurophysiological component; the gate-control theory accounted for both a neurophysiological and a psychological component of pain as equally important. There is no consensus on what constitutes pain.

The propositions of J. Gerald Beales were examined. The major emphasis of Beales' propositions relative to the experience of pain in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis focus on the manner in which pain in interpreted. It was found that factors which contribute to and derive from pain require further research.

Inquiry into the phenomenon of pain as experienced by children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is incomplete. Explanation and prediction are dependent on evidential warrant. The inescapable significance of the interrelatedness of pain, the meanings of pain, and the interpretations of the meanings of pain, particularly with the compromised pediatric patient in the context of the disease process, response to treatment, and interaction with family, place a specialized burden on the pediatric nurse.

Major implications of this study include the call for collaboration among nursing educators, nursing practitioners, and nursing researchers. The focus of this collaboration would be toward identifying and describing accurate subject matters for pediatric nursing education. If juvenile rheumatoid arthritis with its attendant pain is considered a prototype, then there must be collaboration toward accurate representations of pain, meanings of pain, and interpretations of the meanings of pain.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-05, Section: A, page: 1382.

Thesis (ED.D.)--TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, 1992.

School code: 0225.