Assignment5#5

Background of Study

Tr ansitions and brain injury: A qualitative study exploring the journey of people with traumatic brain injury by Conneeley, (2012) is a comprehensive and insightful study that explores the issue of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how persons with the problem can make successful transitions. Traumatic brain injury is a serious event with the potential to significantly affect an individual’s ability to perform everyday normal activities. In some severe cases, TBI tends to cause a person to lose his/her self-esteem, which might ultimately lead into depression. Before the researchers conducted this study, it was not clear how persons with such experiences could make successful transitions when moving from hospital to their homes. The researcher aims to explore the interventions that could facilitate successful transitions from the hospital to the home. The reader should care about this study because it seeks to explore the various effective interventions that could enable TBI victims to lead better and more comfortable lives especially when making transitions from hospital to their homes. In this case, finding effective interventions to the problem could significantly help to reduce the costs associated with the management of the problem. In this study, the purpose of the study was to identify and effective intervention (s) that could enable TBI patients to recover successfully from their conditions, especially as they move from the hospital setting to their homes. In this study, Conneeley (2012) does not explicitly provide the research question (s), but it can be inferred that she intended to determine the various interventions that could enable TBI victims to make successful transitions from hospital to their homes. It is quite clear that the purpose of this research was related to the problem identified. Comment by Luci Hanus: No comma needed here Comment by Luci Hanus: You need to include the publication date with the author name

Method of Study

In her study, Conneeley (2012) used a longitudinal, phenomenological approach to answer the research question. Specifically, she involved 18 persons with severe traumatic brain injury (including rehabilitation professionals and the victims’ family members) in interviews, which were semi-structured. The author notes that he developed the study from a longitudinal, phenomenological approach, and the goal was to follow the TBI victims over a period of six months and again after 12 months. The researcher has used many research journals and they include both qualitative and quantitative research articles. In addition, the researcher has also used other forms of literature such as books to facilitate research on this issue. Conneeley (2012) has included both current and old sources in her research. Quite a number of her sources are beyond 5 years old, and some of them are as old as 1977 and they include both books and academic research journal articles. The researcher does not also indicate or evaluate the weaknesses of the studies that she explored during her research work. The literature review for this research was quite comprehensive, enabling the reader to build a logical argument about the problem under review. The researcher presented many different perspectives and issues relating to the problem, which enable the reader to have adequate information to make meaningful relationships among those issues and to determine the reasonableness of the arguments that the researcher makes. The researcher also developed a sociological framework for interpreting data in an effort to facilitate better understanding of issues of status and identity during the periods of transitions. Comment by Luci Hanus: You need to include the publication date with the author name

Results of Study

In this study, the results identified a number of themes within the data, which include returning home, regaining normal ability, moving forward, and the significance that rehabilitation plays in the transitional period. Additional subthemes in this study include issues related to disruption of life-course, status, self-identity, and reconstruction. Unfortunately, Conneeley (2012) states that the results obtained in the study were not conclusive because of the difficulties involved with the methodology used. However, it was clear that the goal of rehabilitation was successful in facilitating reintegration of TBI victims into the community. In addition, it is necessary to develop flexible programs that would help to individualize the interventions to facilitate better response to the complex and diverse needs of TBI victims. These findings are significant to nursing because aim to find effective interventions to enable TBI victims to make successful transitions from the hospital settings to their homes. These findings contribute to nursing knowledge by providing the interventions that help TBI victims to lead better and more comfortable lives.

Ethical Considerations

The university and the local research ethics committee gave approval for the study. The researcher recruited persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their significant other as they were released from their wards (in a neurological rehabilitation facility). The researcher also involved the professional staff helping with the care of these TBI victims. Some of those professional staff included rehabilitation nurses, speech and language therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, medical staff, and physiotherapists. The researcher also allowed the participants in the study to give informed consent and made appropriate measures to protect their identity. The use of transcripts and pseudonyms by the researcher to present data was aimed at projecting confidentiality and protecting the privacy of the participants. More importantly, Conneeley (2012) made ethical consideration to ensure that the participants received adequate treatment and transition to enable the patient to be able to handle the tasks that they wished back at their homes.

Conclusion

To conclude, this study is quite valuable as it provides meaningful insights to nurses and other health care professionals on the various interventions that facilitate successful transitions among TBI victims. The study by Conneeley (2012) reveals the importance of employing individualized care, facilitating access to rehabilitation programs, and using contextual interventions for the discharged TBI victims as they make transitions to the home environment. This study shows that these interventions are critical in enabling the TBI victims to make successful transitions as well as in enabling them to gain independence and autonomy. The health care givers should also consider the issues of status and identity as they help their patients with the transition processes as these can prove significant in determining success among the TBI victims. The study also reveals that reclaiming control and personal autonomy seemed to be fundamental in facilitating a meaningful life after the TBI as well as in the reconstruction of a rational understanding/perception of self.

As stated in the Classroom Policies that were posted on the first day of this class, “A minimum of Two references are required for every paper for this course.” I commented in the instructions for this assignment in the Week Two announcement that you should use other authors to support the hypothesis of the chosen article in the Introduction and in the Conclusion.

References

Conneeley, A. L. (2012). Transitions and brain injury: A qualitative study exploring the journey of people with traumatic brain injury. Brain Impairment, 13(1), 72-84. doi:  Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1017/BrImp.2012.3 Comment by Luci Hanus: This is Not a doi number. Whenever you see “http” that is an indication that this is an executable URL address and should have the “Retrieved from” statement before it.