Well Being in Older Adults Recovering from Sudden Ortohpedic Disability
Chin-Fang Liu, RN, College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Binghamton, NY, USA
Based within Roger’s Science of Unitary Human Beings, this descriptive correlational study was designed to: 1) describe perceived energy patterns (as an expression of general well-being) and self-reported ability to perform activities of daily living in older adults who are recovering from a sudden episode of physical disablement due to orthopedic injury or surgical procedure in a rehabilitation hospital, and to explore the differences in perceived energy patterns between admission and discharge from the rehabilitation hospital. Criterion-based sampling was used to recruit 30 older adults from a rehabilitation hospital. Three instruments were used: 1) Wellbeing Picture Scale (WPS), 2) an investigator-developed Index of Self-Report ADL; and 3) Demographic Survey. Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimates were .8231 for the WPS and .8622 for the Index of Self-Report ADL. Statistical methods used to answer the research questions included descriptive statistics, paired t test, Pearson’s product-moment correlation, scatter plots, linear curve estimation, and visual inspections (i.e., histograms, box and whisker plots, and bar charts). Statistical significance was set at 0.05. Findings revealed overall group positive changes in perceived energy patterns and self-reported ability to perform ADLs at time of discharge. Particularly, at time of admission to the rehabilitation hospital, older adults reported a relatively moderate to high level of perceived energy (mean scores: range from 3.30 to 4.73). This finding was consistent with Rogers’ conceptual notion that people can be disabled and still be well