Jett, Kathleen F.

The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to attempt to determine if the Braden Scale predicts heel pressure ulcer development in hospitalized patients with peripheral vascular disease. A retrospective chart review was conducted on 235 medical records of patients admitted to the hospital with a primary and secondary diagnosis of peripheral vascular disease. One hundred thirty-two of the records reviewed were excluded from the study due to a confounding diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Of the 103 medical records that met criteria, only three patients developed a heel pressure ulcer. All patients were white and over the age of 80. Of the three patients who developed heel ulcers, two had Braden scores of 18 or less and one had a Braden score of greater than 18. The findings do raise many important questions for further study and the need for a more precise measure of risk of heal ulcers.

Older Guatemalan women living in farmworking communities represent a vulnerable population enduring extreme poverty, leading to decline of their health. A phenomenological approach was selected as the qualitative research methodology to describe their lived experience of health. Pender's (2002) Health Promotion Model was used as the conceptual framework guiding the inquiry. Nine women, living in South Florida, were interviewed using their secondary language, Spanish. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. A synthesized list of descriptive expressions emerged with seven themes. These were analyzed and a structural definition of the lived experience of health was formulated and compared to the concept of health as described by Pender (1982). Understanding the meaning of health among older Guatemalan women may influence policies, practice processes, and accessibility of health care while expanding nursing's body of knowledge. Specific recommendations to improve older Guatemalan women's access to health care were presented.

Influenza is responsible for 20,000 deaths per year in the United States, with adults 65 and older accounting for most of these deaths. In this qualitative study, ten Haitian elders were interviewed in Creole and data were hand-written and simultaneously translated in English, to better understand their health beliefs regarding influenza immunizations. Purnell's model (1998) of Cultural Competence was utilized as organizing framework for description of the sample, analysis and discussion. Several themes emerged during thematic analysis of the participants' responses. Participants identified influenza as a "big cold" which can initially be prevented with traditional home remedies and practices as well as with prayers. Lack of knowledge of the vaccine, uncertainty of the effectiveness of the vaccine, reliance on the recommendations of their children, doctors, and as well as the researcher, and lack of access were all factors reported as affecting their acceptance of the vaccine.