A COMPARISON OF COMMUNITY-BASED NURSES' AND OLDER ADULTS' PERCEPTION OF DEPRESSION AND HOPELESSNESS.
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 148
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: Over four million older adults have mental health problems related to physical or psychological problems. Two of these mental health problems that have been identified are depression and hopelessness. Unchecked depression and hopelessness can have detrimental effects on individuals including social isolation, increased physical complaints and possibly suicide.

Since the provision of health care is increasingly community based, the nurse is the one health care professional who has frequent contacts with the patient in the home and can assess for depression and hopelessness. No studies were found that examined perception the patients felt their level of depression and hopelessness to be and how the nurses who cared for them perceived these factors.

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions community-based nurses have of their patients' self perception of depression and hopelessness. The sample, 68 pairs of patients and their community-based nurses, were given the Miller Hope Scale (MHS) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Five hypotheses were tested: (H1) addressed congruence between nurses' and patients' perception of depression, (H2) addressed congruence between nurses' and patients' perception of hopelessness, (H3) examined the congruence between the responses of nurses and patients related to length of time and the number of times patients were seen by nurses, (H4) examined nurses' level of education related to congruence of responses between nurse and patient, (H5) examined experience in nursing and congruence of responses between nurse and patient. Hypotheses 1, 2, 3, and 5 were tested by using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson r). H4 was subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). T-tests were performed on the GDS and the MHS to show significant differences.

The findings of this study showed nurses' ability to perceive patients' self perceptions of hopelessness and depression. On the MHS, there was no significant difference between the nurses scores and the patients scores. On the GDS there was a correlation, however, as the patients rated themselves as having very little depression, the nurses saw the patients have greater depression. There was no relationship found for congruence of responses between nurses and patients and the variables associated with the hypotheses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: B, page: 0821.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1994.

School code: 0043.