Page 472 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

REMINISCENCE n 439

the nurse just needs to tap into the ongoing a randomized controlled trial, Hanaoka and
dialogue. Ando (2003) used a shortened life Okamura (2004) looked at the effect of life
review of only 1 week with 68 terminally ill review activities on the quality of life in 80 R
cancer patients after testing both short- and older persons. Repeated measures showed
long-term life review with young adults and direct effects on scores of depression and
found that they both promoted young adults’ hopelessness 3 months after completing a
immediate psychological well-being. With group life review intervention.
terminally ill cancer patients, a short-term In summary, there has been growth in
life review was effective in improving spiri- nursing research on reminiscence work. Now,
tual well-being and promoting a good death 10 years later, the research is clearer, the defi-
(Ando, Morita, Akechi, & Okamoto, 2010). nitions made, more work is replicated, and
Ando’s research is thoughtful and builds on the field is moving ahead with more authority
itself supporting the use of a shortened life and organization. Nonetheless, one notices
review with terminally ill patients in Japan. a greater acceptance of reminiscence work
Jenko, Gonzalez, and Alley (2010) added to in foreign countries and related disciplines
the literature in this area by describing the than those in the United States and in nurs-
use of life review in a critical care setting. ing. Researchers in the Netherlands, Canada,
They saw life review as having a distinct China, and Japan have been far more active
purpose in end-of-life care by upholding the in their research pursuits and are produc-
value of the person no matter the shortness of ing more definitive studies. Perhaps this is
the time left to the individual. They encour- because alternative interventions are more
aged the use of life review as an integral accepted in foreign countries or because
part of clinical practice but added no further Americans are more focused on interven-
research. tions that are billable in the U.S. health care
Finally, the bulk of nursing research in system.
this area focuses on improving well-being, One ongoing problem for everyone is
particularly depression, in older people. that reminiscing is a soft intervention and
Wang, Hsu, and Cheng (2005) conducted the outcomes are measured by paper and
a longitudinal study with two equivalent pencil. To really prove its worth as a mental
groups and 94 subjects. The experimen- health intervention, physical measurements
tal group showed a statistically significant are called for. We should be using MRIs to
difference on depression from pretest to observe the brain while reminiscing. We
posttest after a 4-month intervention of rem- should be testing changes in the immune func-
iniscing. Another group of nurse researchers tion and generally examining body chemis-
conducted a qualitative study looking at the try as a direct result of what we are doing.
feasibility of nurses delivering the interven- When those studies are done, we can then
tion of life review to home-dwelling older accept the intervention more fully. Because
women and found that a 3-hour intervention nursing has been in the forefront of qualita-
was a cost-effective method for enhancing tive research for many years, nurses should
mood in these women at home (Symes et al., apply their expertise to the stories that are a
2007). Gunther (2008) described a phenom- product of reminiscing. Reminiscence work
enological study on deferred empathy and provides much data for qualitative studies in
discovered that the process of reflecting on understanding various phenomena and for
the past resulted in an understanding of oth- understanding individual people and their
ers as well as an understanding of one’s self issues. lastly, researchers need to increase
and therefore a greater acceptance of one’s their sample sizes to provide enough power
self, suggesting an important use in help- to make the work relevant to health care. To
ing people adjust to their circumstances. In do this, more funding is needed because the