This qualitative study was designed to describe women's experiences with changes in sexual function related to physical comfort, sexual satisfaction, and feelings of intimacy post-treatment for gynecological cancer. The 17 women who participated in this study described sexuality as a much broader construct. Contrary to existing literature, sexual functioning was found to be one aspect that contributed to the view of the self as a sexual being, but the women's perceptions were not limited to this single dimension. The identification of multidimensional components to be considered in developing a conceptual model to describe sexual health are presented. This study indicates that sexuality should be viewed as a health issue that has an impact on quality of life.

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Interactions clearly demonstrated the need for nursing interventions throughout the experience of prenatal diagnostic testing.

The purpose of this study was to determine the level and type of public policy involvement, as well as perceptions regarding public policy involvement of nurse practitioners. A four-page survey was mailed to a sample of 600 certified nurse practitioners, randomly selected from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners' database. A three-stage mailing procedure yielded a 73% response rate. Most (59.6%) were involved in three or less public policy activities. The most frequently indicated activities included voting (87%) and giving money to a campaign (57%). Lack of time was the most frequently cited barrier, while improving the health of the public was cited most often as a benefit. Overall, nurse practitioners felt they had limited knowledge on how to go about changing public policy, were somewhat interested in public policy issues, believed the actions of public policymakers were very important, and believed these actions influenced the public's health. The majority (79%) had received some information/education on public policy change. Those most active in public policy had high public policy efficacy expectations and perceived a high number of benefits to public policy involvement.

The effectiveness of a one-period school-based AIDS education program on an adolescent population of seventh and eighth grade students (N = 585) was determined. An instrument based on the PRECEDE model was used to assess program effectiveness. Three-way analysis of variance indicated significant differences (p v .01) between pretest to posttest scores for knowledge, attitude, and beliefs for those who received the program versus those who did not by grade and gender of students. The intervention group scored significantly higher than the comparison group on knowledge gain for both seventh and eighth grade students and for males and females. On attitude items, a significant increase occurred from pretest to posttest for eighth grade students who received the program, but not for seventh grade students. The experimental group of eighth grade students scored higher on the attitudes component than the comparison of eighth grade students on the posttest. When attitudes were examined by gender for females in the educational intervention, an increase occurred in attitude scores from pretest to posttest. While belief scores increased significantly from pretest to posttest for the experimental seventh and eighth grade students, significant increases occurred only for experimental group females. Findings support the contention that a one-class period AIDS education program can affect more than just knowledge since attitudes and beliefs also were partially affected.