A preliminary analysis of memorable support and nonsupport messages received by nurses in acute care settings

"God Doesn't Make Mistakes": Memorable Messages, Adjustment, and Grief following Family Death

Communicating in the wake of family death is complicated. Family members can vary in their expectations for support, their understandings of appropriate topics, and their approaches to coping. Using data collected from 172 individuals who experienced a family death in the last five years, this study explored family communication about loss with an eye toward identifying connections between specific communicative moments and reports of grief and adjustment. Framed within the theory of memorable messages (ToMM), five distinct memorable message types were identified and findings revealed that the type of message a bereaved individual received had direct implications for their reported amount of grief and adjustment. Messages centered on justifying or explaining the death were linked to greater grief, as compared to those that offered advice, shared a memory, or provided a sense of availability. Moderation analyses revealed that attendance to religious service impacted the relationship between message type and reports of grief and adjustment, particularly for rationale-based messages, which were more positively received by participants who attended religious service regularly. This piece supports the ToMM and extends knowledge of family communication about death, ultimately providing solace to those struggling to find the appropriate words to say to a grieving loved one.

Memorable Messages about the Misuse of Prescription Stimulants

The misuse of prescription stimulants among college undergraduates is a prevalent and dangerous problem on college campuses across the United States. Guided by a memorable messages framework, this research sought to examine the messages that college students recall about the misuse of prescription stimulants and examine how those messages are associated with students' intention to use stimulants. We analyzed the recalled memorable messages of 129 undergraduates. Three predominant themes emerged from the analysis: academic implications, health implications, and ethical implications. Theme, source, and valence of the memorable messages were not associated with behavioral intention to engage in the misuse of prescription stimulants. These findings contribute to the scholarly and practical understanding of undergraduates' experiences with illicit behaviors, and demonstrate a need to further investigate students' sense-making in relation to risky decisions made during their college experience.

Abstinence Memorable Message Narratives: A New Exploratory Research Study Into Young Adult Sexual Narratives

Abstinence for most adolescent-aged college students relates to several factors, including strong religious beliefs, an aversion to taking risks, high career expectations, or limited attractiveness. Young adults receive hundreds of messages from various sources; therefore, understanding their memorable sexual messages is essential. This exploratory research uses an interpretive method to unravel the memorable sexual narratives of 65 virgin respondents. Findings yield two primary themes: involuntary abstinence, and conscious abstinence, which demonstrate that messages of abstinence are important yet often imbue punitive internal attitudes and beliefs derived from mainstream media and peer relationships. The article concludes with a recommendation for health practitioners and communication scholars to create positive open spaces where young adults can discuss sexuality, sexual relationships, and sexual behaviors. Additionally, understanding stigmas related to abstinence helps reframe normative sex communication messages and promote constructive short- and long-term sexual health behaviors.

"You Never Forget Your First Mistake": Nursing Socialization, Memorable Messages, and Communication About Medical Errors

As nurses' communication is essential to prevent, intercept, and resolve medical mistakes, it is important to understand how they learn to communicate about medical errors. In this study, we identify memorable messages about communicating about mistakes that nursing students receive during their training and how they make sense of these messages. Data were acquired through individual interviews with 68 nursing students. The data were analyzed using a thematic constant comparative method. While open and honest communication about medical errors was the overarching message participants formally and informally learned, for nursing students, communicating about medical errors is a much more complex process than using open and honest communication. When dealing with medical errors, nursing students relied on three major memorable messages to guide their communication: (a) Not everyone hears about errors, (b) hierarchy matters, and

Do sororities promote members' health? A study of memorable messages regarding weight and appearance

This study examines the relationship between sorority communication practices and members' body images through the lens of organizational socialization and identification. Specifically, we analyzed 210 sorority members' memorable messages concerning weight and physical appearance using an inductive coding method. While many of the messages examined were affirming or complimentary in nature, the results of the analysis suggest that these types of messages may positively as well as negatively influence members' body images, behaviors regarding physical appearance, and social identities. These findings contribute to scholarly and practical understandings of the influences on college women's body image and health and the potentially powerful role that organizations play in shaping members' attitudes and actions concerning their eating, exercise, and other aspects of their appearance. Implications for future health communication research in other organizational contexts outside of sororities are also discussed. Additionally, the findings of the current study indicate the broad utility of a memorable messages approach and suggest the need for further examination of the ways in which differing organizational dynamics may demonstrate divergence from traditional sources of memorable messages.

The Impact of Personal Metaphors and Memorable Interpersonal Communication on Body Satisfaction

Memorable messages about body size can have profound negative psychological and emotional effects on body image and personal health. We found that both men and women recalled more negative than positive memorable messages about their body appearance and size. Participants who reported receiving negative memorable messages also revealed stronger current body dissatisfaction and poorer self-image than participants who reported positive memorable messages. Participants who received negative body comments also described their own body using negative metaphors. Negative memorable messages often occurred in front of third parties who expressed approval for the message, sometimes in the form of laughter. We discuss the mental health consequences of negative messages about body size and the implications for public health campaigns.

Young adults' strategies for managing social support during weight-loss attempts

Obesity and being overweight often result in serious health problems. Despite growing awareness of the dangers associated with being overweight, many individuals struggle to lose weight. Investigators have identified social support as a key element in weight-loss attempts. Unfortunately, little has been done to investigate how people solicit social support from members of their pre-existing social network without a structured intervention. To address this limitation, I conducted in-depth interviews with 25 participants. Through grounded theory analysis of these interviews, I developed a typology of support management strategies used by overweight young adults when attempting to lose weight. I outline these strategies, their perceived success, and implications for future research in this article.

An Initial Investigation into Naturally Occurring Loss- and Gain-Framed Memorable Breast Cancer Messages

Memorable message research examines interpersonal messages "…remembered for extremely long periods of time and which people perceive as a major influence on the course of their lives" (Knapp, Stohl, & Reardon, 1981, p. 27). They can also guide actions, such as health behaviors. This exploratory research examined self-reported memorable messages about breast cancer to determine if they were framed, emphasizing either the benefits (gain-framed) or the costs (loss-framed) of a behavior. About one-fourth of the messages were framed, with most being gain-framed. The messages tended to emphasize early detection actions. Study limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Investigating the effect of nurse-team communication on nurse turnover: relationships among communication processes, identification, and intent to leave

Enhanced team communication may strengthen nurses' attachment to their organizations and teams and improve nurse retention. This study examines the relationships among nurse-team communication, identification (organizational and team), and intent to leave. Hospital nurses (N = 201) completed surveys measuring 3 nurse-team communication processes: promoting team synergy, ensuring quality decisions, and individualizing communication. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that promoting team synergy was a significant predictor of intent to leave, whereas ensuring quality decisions and individualizing communication did not account for significant additional variance in intent to leave. Separate analyses showed that the relationship between promoting team synergy and intent to leave was partially mediated by team identification or by organizational identification. Further analyses were conducted on the 7 communication practices for promoting team synergy. Mentoring emerged as the only significant predictor of intent to leave; however, its relationship to intent to leave was fully mediated by organizational identification or partially mediated by team identification. Pragmatic suggestions are offered to improve nurse identification and reduce turnover.

The language of mentoring in a health care environment

In this article, 4 models were tested on the relations among mentoring, job expectations, job reward value, job involvement, and organizational commitment of hospital nurses. In the model with the best fit to the data, mentoring and job expectations were positively related to job reward value. Organizational commitment and job involvement were increased by job reward value. A direct effect on organizational commitment was found for mentor assistance in learning skills. Specific methods used by mentors to convey supportive communication to their protégés included encouraging them to do their best, helping them gain additional training, providing support and encouragement when others criticize, helping deal with jealousy, and providing protégés with needed information. Nurse mentors were admired for standing up to administration and for challenging unfair decisions, thoughtless actions, and lack of respect on the part of administrators, doctors, and patients. Nurses indicated that working hard and not having anyone notice, being frequently criticized and rarely rewarded, and being exposed to serious diseases were particularly challenging and stressful aspects of nursing. Implications of this study for nurses and those working in health care environments are that mentoring and organizational commitment may be avenues for increasing the degree to which nurses feel that their job is rewarding.