The winner of the "Best Original Research Paper in Cancer Nursing" Award for 2013 is "Effects of an Internet Support System to Assist Cancer Patients in Reducing Symptom Distress: A Randomized Controlled Trial" by Cornelia M. Ruland, PhD.
This article presents intensive psychiatric nurses' work and nursing care. The aim of the study was to describe expressions of cultural knowing in nursing care in psychiatric intensive care units (PICU). Spradley's ethnographic methodology was applied. Six themes emerged as frames for nursing care in psychiatric intensive care: providing surveillance, soothing, being present, trading information, maintaining security and reducing. These themes are used to strike a balance between turbulence and stability and to achieve equilibrium. As the nursing care intervenes when turbulence emerges, the PICU becomes a sanctuary that offers tranquility, peace and rest.
More than 70% of seriously ill patients with cancer suffer from xerostomia and the associated problems of swallowing, chewing and speaking. This study aims to investigate whether treatment with acupuncture is a viable option for hospice patients with xerostomia. During a 2-year period, 117 patients were assessed for xerostomia. Eighty-two patients were found to have moderate xerostomia. Sixty-seven fulfilled the criteria for inclusion. Of these, 14 were included but only eight completed the study. Ten acupuncture treatments were given during a 5-week period. The effect of acupuncture was measured using a visual analogue scale, and by measuring the saliva production before and after the series of treatment. The results show that all the patients experienced alleviation of dryness of the mouth and the associated symptoms, and thus benefited from the acupuncture treatment. However, conducting a 5-week acupuncture intervention study is not feasible at an inpatient hospice due to the patients being too close to death.
The Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT), a case study of a clinical prevention trial, offered a unique opportunity to examine the multifaceted and complex role of the nurse. The primary aims of this study were (a) to identify the self-descriptions of a sample of nurses involved in the day-to-day management of the BCPT, (b) to determine the nurses' perceptions of their own role and the role of the women who joined the BCPT, (c) to understand the role of the nurse in the larger context of a clinical prevention trial, and (d) to expand the knowledge base regarding some of the social and ethical underpinnings of clinical prevention trials with healthy participants. The research design was qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory. The methods used were the telephone interview and the focus group. Fifty BCPT nurses were interviewed. This included 30 telephone interviews and 20 additional BCPT nurses who participated in four national and international focus groups. After analysis of the data using ethnographic methods, a view of the multi-faceted role of the BCPT nurse emerged. On a broader scale, the inquiry raised a number of critical ethical and social issues that are relevant to future clinical prevention trials with volunteer human participants.
Nursing education has undergone significant changes during the last two decades in Finland. However, clinical teaching has remained unchanged even though it forms the most extensive part of nursing education. National and international research results have also exposed several problems for clinical teaching. In the Finnish nursing education system these problems have remained unsolved probably because many of the suggestions for development, based on research results, presuppose changes in both the college and health care systems. The whole system of clinical teaching was changed during the years 1992-1993 in one nursing college and in one hospital in Tampere, Finland. Action research as a research strategy was applied in this study. The purpose of this paper is to describe the solutions sought and to assess if action research can be applied to the development of clinical teaching.
Nurses' perception of nursing research is an important variable affecting the successful development of a clinical nursing research program. The objectives of this study were to: examine the perceived value, role, interest, support and experience of cardiac nurses in nursing research; to determine the effects of age and level of education on their perceptions; and to analyze the reliability of Alcock et al.'s questionnaire. The survey was administered to 313 nurses with a response rate of 46%. Frequency distributions were obtained on individual survey items. MANOVAs were performed as a function of age group and education level, followed by post hoc ANOVAs. Findings showed nurses valued nursing research particularly as it related to clinical practice decisions and solutions to patient care problems. They saw a participatory role in the first stages of the research process. Age was not a factor in nurses' perceptions of nursing research with the exception of perceived support. Diploma nurses indicated higher levels of perceived value (p = 0.000), role (p = 0.034), interest (p = 0.000) and support (p = 0.017) for nursing research than baccalaureate nurses. The Cronbach reliability coefficient of each area indicated high internal consistency (> 0.72). When 5 items in the questionnaire are deleted, the tool exhibits high level of reliability and evidence of construct and discriminant validity.
Nowadays many people suffering from severe and persistent mental disorders are cared for in ambulatory settings by multidisciplinary teams. Nurses take an important part in these teams. What is nursing practice in this type of setting? A case study was developed from a nurse's clinical practice in order to answer this question. The results suggest that these nursing services are of an advanced practice nature as defined by Hamric et al. (2000).
The objective of surgical scrubbing is to reduce the bioburden on the hands of the surgical team in hope that if gloves are punctured or torn, the number of bacteria released at the operation site will be minimal and therefore reduce the risk of site infection. Long procedures with scrubbing and soaping can, however, be counterproductive because with repetition they tend to cause skin abrasions, damages and injuries without further reducing the risk of bacterial release. Within a general review of OR processes, it was decided to substitute to the standard surgical scrub a "new" scrubless pre-op surgical hand rub procedure. This article summarizes the results.
