Myocardial infarction (MI) is a traumatic health event and at the same time a transition of vital importance in human life. The purpose of this study was to elucidate recovery patterns after myocardial infarction with regard to the content of patients' experiences. The study used a descriptive design and a qualitative method. Interviews with 16 men and women were performed, and data were subjected to a thematic content analysis. The recovery process had a pattern of ability, restraints, and reorientation. Through self-help and help from others, the mutual sharing of burdens, and clarifying restraints to recovery, the recovery process progressed toward reorientation. New values and motivation for change, as well as a new balance within the self and relationships were found. The MI had been integrated into life and, through the recovery process, patients' attitudes were better focused, leading to an enhanced quality of life.
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.
This paper presents partial findings of a larger research project focusing on what it means to live with a chronic illness. Getting in harmony with oneself is a movement towards, and a form of, acceptance of the chronic suffering and disease. Some patients achieve this level of acceptance, while for others the obstacles of everyday life make this movement towards acceptance difficult. Achieving harmony with oneself is conditioned by the existence of hope and spirit of life/life courage and by the pressure of doubts on this hope. Doubts can shake this hope so that instead of moving towards acceptance, the patient drifts towards hopelessness and despair. The research design is qualitative and uses a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. A total of 18 patients were interviewed, divided into three groups of six patients diagnosed with 'type I' diabetes, colitis ulcerosa and patients with coronary occlusion in the rehabilitation phase. The goal of the research was to derive patterns/themes common to the three diagnosed groups regarding the patients' view of health and disease in connection with chronic illness and to elucidate the significance of this view for how the patients coped with everyday life. The research method is inspired by Paul Ricoeur.
To use the philosophy and methodology of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in the investigation of unit to unit transfers to determine aspects which are working well and should be incorporated into standard practice.
Handoffs can result in threats to patient safety and an atmosphere of distrust and blaming among staff can be engendered. As the majority of handoffs go well, an alternative is to build on successful handoffs.
The AI methodology was used to discover what was currently working well in unit to unit transfers. The data from semi-structured interviews that were conducted with staff, patients, and family informed structural process improvements.
Themes extracted from the interviews focused on the situational variables necessary for the perfect transfer, the mode and content of transfer-related communication, and important factors in communication with the patient and family.
This project was successful in demonstrating the usefulness of AI as both a quality improvement methodology and a strategy to build trust among key stakeholders.
Giving staff members the opportunity to contribute positively to process improvements and share their ideas for innovation has the potential to highlight expertise and everyday accomplishments enhancing morale and reducing conflict.
This paper aims to present a theoretical account of professional nursing challenges involved in providing care to patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study objectives are patients' and nurses' expectations, goals and approaches to assisted personal body care.
The provision of help with body care may have therapeutic qualities but there is only limited knowledge about the particularities and variations in specific groups of patients and the nurse-patient interactions required to facilitate patient functioning and well-being. For patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, breathlessness represents a particular challenge in the performance of body care sessions.
We investigated nurse-patient interactions during assisted personal body care, using grounded theory with a symbolic interaction perspective and a constant comparative method.
Twelve cases of nurse-patient interactions were analysed. Data were based on participant observation, individual interviews with patients and nurses and a standardized questionnaire on patients' breathlessness.
Nurses and patients seemed to put effort into the interaction and wanted to find an appropriate way of conducting the body care session according to the patients' specific needs. Achieving therapeutic clarity in nurse-patient interactions appeared to be an important concern, mainly depending on interactions characterized by: (i) reaching a common understanding of the patient's current conditions and stage of illness trajectory, (ii) negotiating a common scope and structuring body care sessions and (iii) clarifying roles.
It cannot be taken for granted that therapeutic qualities are achieved when nurses provide assistance with body care. If body care should have healing strength, the actual body care activities and the achievement of therapeutic clarity in nurses' interaction with patients' appear to be crucial.
The paper proposes that patients' integrity and comfort in the body care session should be given first priority and raises attention to details that nurses should take into account when assisting severely ill patients.
In spite of the long history of nurse practitioner practice in primary healthcare, less is known about nurse practitioners in hospital-based environments because until very recently, they have not been included in the extended class registration (nurse practitioner equivalent) with the College of Nurses of Ontario. Recent changes in the regulation of nurse practitioners in Ontario to include adult, paediatric and anaesthesia, indicates that a workforce review of practice profiles is needed to fully understand the depth and breadth of the role within hospital settings. Here, we present information obtained through a descriptive, self-reported survey of all nurse practitioners working in acute care settings who are not currently regulated in the extended class in Ontario. Results suggest wide acceptance of the role is concentrated around academic teaching hospitals. Continued barriers exist related to legislation and regulation as well as understanding and support for the multiple aspects of this role beyond clinical practice. This information may be used by nurse practitioners, nursing leaders and other administrators to position the role in hospital settings for greater impact on patient care. As well, understanding the need for regulatory and legislative changes to support the hospital-based Nurse Practitioner role will enable greater impact on health human resources and healthcare transformation.
The acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) role was developed in Canada in the late 1980s to offset rapidly increasing physician workloads in acute care settings and to address the lack of continuity of care for seriously ill patients and increased complexity of care delivery. These challenges provided an opportunity to develop an advanced practice nursing role to care for critically ill patients with the intent of improving continuity of care and patient outcomes. For this paper, we drew on the ACNP-related findings of a scoping review of the literature and key informant interviews conducted for a decision support synthesis on advanced practice nursing. The synthesis revealed that ACNPs are working in a range of clinical settings. While ACNPs are trained at the master's level, there is a gap in specialty education for ACNPs. Important barriers to the full integration of ACNP roles into the Canadian healthcare system include lack of full utilization of role components, limitations to scope of practice, inconsistent team acceptance and funding issues. Facilitators to ACNP role implementation include clear communication about the role, with messages tailored to the specific information needs of various stakeholder groups; supportive leadership of healthcare managers; and stable and predictable funding. The status of ACNP roles continues to evolve across Canada. Ongoing leadership and continuing research are required to enhance the integration of these roles into our healthcare system.
Prostate cancer challenges not only the men with the disease, but also their partners. Existing studies have focused on the relationship between type of treatment and sexual and urinary function in men, with recent qualitative work suggesting that men and their spouses have differing responses to the illness. Factors predicting women's adaptation to prostate cancer have not been examined.
Using a model derived from family stress and adaptation theory, this study examined (1) the contribution of urinary and sexual symptoms, sense of coherence, marital resources and situational appraisal to wives' global adaptation (PAIS) and emotional adaptation (POMS), and (2) the role of situational appraisal as a mediator between the set of independent variables and PAIS and POMS.
In a prospective, correlational design, data were collected from 70 women following their partners' diagnosis and again 3 months later.
Using a path analysis approach, between 30% and 62.7% of the variance in global adjustment and mood disturbance was explained across model tests. Sense of coherence was a strong and consistent predictor. Appraisal acted as a mediator only at time 2, mediating the effect of symptom distress on global adaptation. Change in sense of coherence and change in family resources predicted global adaptation and emotional adaptation at time 2, and predicted the change between time 1 and 2 in those variables.
The findings suggest nursing interventions that mobilize and build wives' sense of the manageability, meaningfulness and comprehensibility of life events, and that foster cohesion and flexibility within the marital relationship. Interventions that mitigate the impact of urinary symptoms and the appraisal of threat in the illness event are also indicated. Additional model-testing studies based on family adaptation theory with patients and family members in other types of cancer would help build nursing knowledge for interventions in cancer.
