Guided imagination as an intervention in hopelessness.
Individual participants have returned to share the improvements made in scholastic and personal endeavors after continued use of the exercises/methods presented at the workshop. Other students requested repeated workshops/sessions directed toward reducing personal stress of negative expectations and for use with clients. Spreading the exercises over time appears to enhance integration and change. Future research is needed to document the efficacy of using imagery in nursing for students as well as for patients. For some clinical populations immediate results are often needed, for example those presenting with "giving up" behaviors in critical care areas. This concern remains for future research. It is speculated also that in the extreme of the data from this study, as evidenced in the unequal regression slopes, some significance may be hidden or masked. It is recommended that research continue utilizing academic as well as clinical populations identified as experiencing hopelessness. Indicators of short-term change must be developed and tested. It also is recommended that nurses interested in mind/body interaction pursue studies using imagery as a potential nursing intervention and begin the development of tools to document these interventions. Clients, staff, and students who experience hopelessness tend toward "giving up" behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a workshop in guided imagination techniques on the condition of hopelessness. Although no statistically significant results can be reported from this study, nurses need to continue to develop imagery intervention techniques and to investigate, through research, the efficacy of these interventions. It is hoped that nurses in psychiatric and non-psychiatric settings will read the abundant, rich literature on the uses of imagery in the health sciences and will begin to explore the possibilities that exist for its application in nursing.
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D012718:Set, Psychology