Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is independently associated with an increased risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can reduce mortality and morbidity, but low compliance rates are seen.
To explore and describe the experiences of CPAP-treatment in a young male patient with severe OSAS during a 6-month period from the couple's perspective. METHODS AND THE CASE: A single case study with a phenomenographic approach was employed. Diagnostic procedures of OSAS and initiation of treatment with Auto-CPAP, humidifier and a nasal mask were performed during 4 visits. Conceptions were collected at 4 different occasions during the 6-month period (before, and 2 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after treatment initiation) by means of interviews with a 33-year old male patient and his female partner.
Totally 17 different structural aspects were found to fluctuate during the 6-month period in relation to; influence of stressors, social reactions and adaptation to increase compliance.
An increased knowledge about the influence of stressors, the social reactions, and the adaptation can help healthcare personnel to identify and better understand concerns of other patients and spouses during different time phases of the initial 6-month period of CPAP-treatment.
It has become clear that nursing is a high-risk occupation with regards to stress-related diseases. In this study, we were interested in nurses' experiences of stress and the emotions arising from stress at work. Results showed that nurses experienced negative stress which was apparently related to the social environment in which they worked. Four nurses were interviewed. The method used was grounded theory. Analysis of the interviews singled out absence of response as the core category. Recurring stressful situations obviously caused problems for the nurses in their daily work. Not only did they lack responses from their supervisors, they also experienced emotions of frustration, powerlessness, hopelessness and inadequacy, which increased the general stress experienced at work. Our conclusion is that the experience of absence of response leads to negative stress in nurses.
Academic dishonesty, whether in the form of plagiarism or cheating on tests, has received renewed attention in the past few decades as pervasive use of the Internet and a presumed deterioration of ethics in the current generation of students has led some, perhaps many, to conclude that academic dishonesty is reaching epidemic proportions. What is lacking in many cases, including in the nursing profession, is empirical support of these trends. This article attempts to provide some of that empirical data and supports the conclusion that cheating is a significant issue in all disciplines today, including nursing. Some preliminary policy implications are also considered.
There is a high prevalence of smoking and physical inactivity among individuals with severe mental illness (SMI). The current study assessed the acceptability of introducing physical activity, including perceived advantages and disadvantages, as an adjunct to a smoking cessation service within this population.
109 participants with SMI who were receiving smoking cessation treatment completed a survey assessing perceived interest in physical activity and a 24-item decisional balance questionnaire reflecting potential advantages and disadvantages of becoming more physically active.
The majority of the participants reported being interested in assistance in becoming more active [63% (69/109)]. The highest rated advantages reported were 'It would improve my health or reduce my risk of disease' and 'It would improve how I feel about myself'. Cost, and being active by oneself were the most frequently reported barriers.
This study suggests that many individuals with SMI seeking treatment for smoking cessation may also be receptive to assistance in becoming more physically active. Such individuals endorse both advantages and disadvantages more frequently than those not interested.
This study provides preliminary support for the acceptability of adding physical activity as a smoking cessation strategy with SMI individuals. Addressing salient barriers will be critical to integrating physical activity within this smoking cessation service.
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.
Oral history makes a critical contribution in articulating the perspectives of people often overlooked in histories written from the standpoint of dominating class, gender, ethnic or professional groups. Using three interrelated approaches - life stories, oral history, and narrative analysis - this paper analyzes family responses to psychiatric care and mental illness in oral history interviews with family members who experienced mental illness themselves or within their family between 1930 and 1975. Interviews with three family members in Alberta, Canada are the primary focus. These stories provide an important avenue to understand the meaning and transformations of mental health-care from the point of view of families. Family members' stories reveal contradictory responses to the dominant cultural discourse. Using a performative framework of interpretation, the narratives reveal a complex interplay between medical, social and cultural conceptions of mental illness, deepening our understanding of its meaning. The history of mental health-care can be substantially enriched by the analysis of family members' stories, not only revealing the constructed nature of mental illness, but also illustrating the family as a mediating context in which the meaning of mental illness is negotiated.
BACKGROUND: This paper describes a study that explores the experiences of internationally educated nurses (IENs) in their efforts to gain entry to practice as Registered Nurses (RNs) in the province of Ontario, Canada. AIM: The aim was to uncover, in part, the issues related to professional nursing credentialling. METHODS: This study was guided by a biographical narrative (qualitative) research methodology. A convenience sample of 12 IEN students volunteered for this study representing the Philippines, Mainland China, Korea, Ukraine and India. FINDINGS: The findings were that the IENs progress through a three-phase journey in their quest for licensure in Ontario. These phases include: (1) hope - wanting the Canadian dream of becoming an RN in Ontario; (2) disillusionment - discovering that their home-country nursing qualifications do not meet Ontario RN entry to practice; and (3) navigating disillusionment - living the redefined Canadian dream by returning to nursing school to upgrade their nursing qualifications. CONCLUSIONS: Professional regulatory nursing bodies and nursing educators, as well as practising nurses, must be aware of the potentially confusing and unpleasant processes IENs go through as they qualify for the privilege of practising nursing in Ontario.
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.
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.
Acute leukaemia and malignant lymphoma patients' experiences of disease, treatment and nursing care during the active treatment phase: an explorative study.
Five acute leukaemia or highly malignant lymphoma patients at a hospital in southern Sweden were interviewed about their daily living problems, their coping strategies and their opinions about the nursing care they received during the active phase of their treatment. In addition the EORTC QLQ-C30, the Global Life Quality and the Sense of Coherence scales were administered. The data were analysed from a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective and interpreted to indicate that the patients sensed a threat to their lives, loss of control, and having to live with uncertainty stemming from the disease and the treatment. They had problems with fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, sore mouth and high temperature. However, they seemed to minimize the importance of these problems and instead focused on gaining control of the situation, developing their knowledge of the disease and relying on the support of their family. Contradictions appeared in their statements about the quality of care, the information given was said to be good but difficult to understand; although the quality of the nursing care was judged to be high it had to be asked for. That is, help was received on request. The patients' perspective of the family and the nurses should be studied in further research in order to fully understand the patients' coping strategies and how nursing care can support them.
