Social Support Group for People with Diabetes Research Paper

Social Support Group for People with Diabetes - Research Paper Example The role of social support in the health care profession is well accepted and has been shown to provide a certain degree of assistance in terms of alleviation of a number of illnesses and diseases (Sieloff, Frey, & King, 2007). However, there are also still a number of pathological fields that have yet to explore the efficacy of social support in terms of alleviations of symptoms and general recovery. Along these lines, this paper explores the hypothesis, â€Å"A social support group for people with diabetes will increase their medication compliance,† within the boundaries of relevant concepts, particularly social support. A total of eight articles are reviewed in this paper, offering insights on the population and sample, background literature, and significance of earlier studies made in support of the mid-range theory of social support. Some of these articles cover the theory of social support and its perceived effects on people with diabetes, while others focus on a more ge neral application of the theory on other diseases and medical conditions. The conceptual definitions of social support in nursing researches are largely the same, varying only in terms of the degree of intimacy that researchers agree upon. Operational definitions of social support, however, differ depending on the focus and the extent of the study. Different populations were used in the studies investigating the effects of the existence of a social support group. Since the particular hypothesis herein focuses on people with diabetes, the population utilized for a majority of the researches included in this review involves diabetic patients Social support: Review of Related Literature In a study by Patterson and Brewer (2009), social support was defined as â€Å"the informational, instrumental / practical, emotional, and affirmational resources that people can receive from others† (p. 178). Operationally, social support was measured in terms of the amount of â€Å"information , aid, strategy, or resource that helps the parent to cope with the stressors and challenges associated with parenting an adolescent with diabetes† (p. 179). In this study, the population considered were parents of children with diabetes and the sample consisted of nine parents (six mothers and 3 fathers) of children with Type 1 diabetes. The study explicitly mentions reference to theories of support (p. 179) and it supports the existing theory by showing that parents are necessary social support for adolescents with diabetes. In the second study reviewed, Goz, et al (2005) defined social support as â€Å"the assistance and protection given to others, especially to individuals.† Presence of social support was measured in terms of the presence of family, including parents, spouse, offspring, siblings and grandparents; friends; and, a significant other, in the form of boy/girlfriend, relative, neighbor, and doctor using a pre-piloted survey questionnaire delivered to the participants (Goz, et al, 2005). The population for the study consisted of patients with Type 2 diabetes while sample group consisted of â€Å"66 type 2 diabetes patients being followed up in the Diabetes Polyclinic of Kocaeli State Hospital in the Marmara

Decision-making and Information Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Decision-making and Information Politics - Essay Example Responsibility refers to the concept of being accountable for every action an officer undertakes, while authority refers to the ability of an officer to influence the behavior of individuals. Empowerment in relation to governance means the authority an officer has towards acting on the decision made. Communication is the exchange of ideas or information pertaining to the policy or decision that has been made. For IT governance to achieve success, the authorities concerned must show the values of transparency, appropriate representation and support (Birrell, 2012). Transparency refers to availing information on the process itself, and this includes on how the decisions are made, and who are the individuals who make the decisions. Appropriate representation denotes the representation of people who might be affected by the decisions made, while support refers to the ability of an organization to mobilize the support of its IT governance structure. The organization should seek the support of every one interested with its affairs, and this includes its employees, and members of the public. The IT governance has a structure component, which provides an answer to what is governed, and who governs it. My university of study has a centralized IT governance model divided into four sections (Brisebois, Boyd and Shadid, 2010) , The first level of the governance structure is the strategic level, and it comprises of the senior most executives of the business entity. The main focus of governance at this level is to align the education strategies of the university, with its information technology strategy. At this stage, the committee creates the vision of the vision of the university, and how information technology will help it achieve its vision (Weill and Ross, 2004). The second level of the IT governance structure is the executive level. This stage