Specialist nursing training in Poland: Applications for neuroscience nursing

Background: Nurses have a pivotal role in providing, facilitating, advocating and promoting the best possible care and outcome for the client. To ensure decisions and actions are based on current standards of practice, nurses must be accountable for participation in ongoing education in their area of practice. Aim: To present a description of the current state of Polish nursing education and specialized model for neurological and neurosurgical nursing that can be utilized for both undergraduate and postgraduate continuing education in Poland. Data sources: The model of postgraduate training introduced in Poland in 2000 was taken into consideration in developing the framework for neuroscience nursing postgraduate continuing education presented here. The framework for neurological continuing education is also based on a review of the literature and is consistent with Poland’s legally binding professional nursing regulations (normative and implementing regulations). Conclusion: The model demonstrates the need for the content of pre- and post-undergraduate degree education in neurological nursing to be graduated, based on the frameworks for undergraduate education (acquiring the knowledge and basic skills for performing the work of nurses) and postgraduate education (acquiring knowledge and specialist skills necessary for providing advanced nursing care including medical acts on patients with nervous system diseases). Implications for nursing: New and advanced skills gained in specialization training can be applied to complex functions, roles and professional tasks undertaken by nurses in relation to care of patients with neurological dysfunctions.

Nurses' accountability for stroke quality of care: part one: Review of the literature on nursing-sensitive patient outcomes

Over the past decade, an exciting area of research has emerged that demonstrates strong links between specific nursing care activities and patient outcomes. This body of research has resulted in the identification of a set of "nursing-sensitive outcomes"(NSOs). These NSOs may be interpreted with more meaning when they are linked to evidence-based best practice guidelines, which provide a structured means of ensuring care is consistent among all health care team members, across geographic locations, and across care settings. Uptake of evidence-based best practices at the point of care has been shown to have a measurable positive impact on processes of care and patient outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic, narrative review of the literature regarding the clinical effectiveness of nursing management strategies on stroke patient outcomes sensitive to nursing interventions. Subsequent investigation will explore current applications of nursing-sensitive outcomes to patients with stroke, and identify and validate measurable NSOs within stroke care delivery.

Models of care in geriatric oncology nursing

Objectives To review models of care for older adults with cancer, with a focus on the role of the oncology nurse in geriatric oncology care. International exemplars of geriatric oncology nursing care are discussed. Data source Published peer reviewed literature, web-based resources, professional society materials, and the authors' experience. Conclusion Nursing care for older patients with cancer is complex and requires integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines that blends the sciences of geriatrics, oncology, and nursing. and which recognizes the dimensions of quality of life. Implications for Nursing Practice: Oncology nurses can benefit from learning key skills of comprehensive geriatric screening and assessment to improve the care they provide for older adults with cancer.

Measuring and reporting on social performance: From numbers and narratives to a useful framework for social enterprises

This paper examines the need for a framework for social enterprises to measure and report on social performance. Reviewing social reporting practice, and concepts central to financial reporting, this paper presents a framework for social performance reporting in the context of social enterprises. A Statement of Social Performance is developed, through consideration of social reporting approaches, influences, and issues in third sector and private sector organisations. This Statement is applied in the context of an employment and training social enterprise, demonstrating its application in practice.

USING ‘NUTRITIONAL NARRATIVE’ AND FOCUS GROUPS TO UNDERSTAND HOW NUTRITIONAL CARE CAN BETTER PRIORITISED FOR OLDER PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL SETTINGS

Introduction: Poor nutritional status among older people is well documented with 40% of older people reported as malnourished on hospital admission. Poor nutrition contributes to increased infection, poorer patient outcomes and death and longer hospital stays. In this study, we assessed the ‘nutrition narrative’ from older hospital patients together with nutrition knowledge among nursing and medical staff and students.
Methods: The study used a convenience sample of older people (30, mean age 82 years) in two large geographically separate city hospitals. Patients mentally alert and consenting, gave a recorded ‘nutrition narrative’ to get a sense of how they felt their nutritional needs were being met in hospital. Main themes were identified by grounded analysis framework. Focus groups were recruited from medical/nursing teachers and students to assess their working knowledge of nutrition and the nutritional needs of the older patient group.
Results: Analysis of the ‘nutrition narrative’ suggested several themes (i) staff should listen to patients' needs/wishes in discussion with themselves and family members (ii) staff should continue to encourage and progress a positive eating experience (iii) staff should monitor food eaten/or not eaten and increase regular monitoring of weight. The focus groups with medical and nursing students suggested a limited knowledge about nutritional care of older people and little understanding about roles or cross-talk about nutrition across the multidisciplinary groups.
Conclusions: The ‘nutrition narrative’ themes suggested that the nutritional experience of older people in hospital can and must be improved. Nursing and medical staff providing medical and nursing care need better basic knowledge of nutrition and nutritional assessment, an improved understanding of the roles of the various multidisciplinary staff and of hospital catering pathways. Care professionals need to prioritise patient nutrition much more highly and recognise nutritional care as integral to patient healing and recovery

Structure du temps de travail des infirmières de santé publique: effets de l'âge des patients, de la nature des prestations fournies et du lieu du contact. [Structure of work times of public health nurses: effect of the age of patients, nature of care given and location of contact].

In the framework of health services research sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation, a research was undertaken of the activity of the large majority of the public health nurses working in the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Fribourg (total population 700,000). During one week, 130 nurses gathered, with a specially devised instrument, data on 4165 patient visits. Studying the duration of the contacts, one has distinguished contact duration per se (DC), duration of the travel time preceding the contact (DD), and total duration in relation with the contact (DTC-addition of the first two). It was noted that the three durations increased significantly with patient age (as regard travel time, this is explained by the higher proportion of home visits in higher age groups, as compared with visits at a health center). Examined according to location of the visit, contact duration per se (without travel) is higher for visits at home and in nursing homes than for those taking place at a health center. Looked at in respect to the care given (technical care, or basic nursing care, or both simultaneously), our data show that the provision of basic nursing care (alone or with technical care) doubles contact duration (from 20 to 42-45'). The analyses according to patient age shows that, at an advanced age (beyond 80 years particularly), there is an important increase of the visits where both types of care are given. However, contact duration per se shows a significant raise with age only for the group "technical care only"; it can be demonstrated that this is due to the fact that older patients require more complex technical acts (e.g., bladder care, as compared with simpler acts such as injection). A model of the relationships between patient age and contact duration is proposed: it is because of the increase in the proportions of home visits, of visits including basic nursing care, and of more complex technical acts that older persons require more of the working time of public health nurses.

Preuves empiriques des liens entre des indicateurs de performance processuels et les résultats sensibles aux soins infirmiers

Travail dirigé présenté à la Faculté des sciences infirmières en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maître ès sciences (M.Sc.) en sciences infirmières option administration des services infirmiers

O Cuidador de Enfermagem e o Cuidar em Uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva; The Nursing Caregiver and the Caring in Intensive Care Units

There are several aggressive factors in Intensive Care Units (ICU), which reach not only patients, but the nursing caregivers, since they participate in complex procedures and death of patients. Nursing caregivers may have difficulties on their daily work routine that can influence the way of care. The goal of this study was to identify the aspects of nursing caregivers working in adult ICU. It is a describe-exploratory study with qualitative approach, developed among 21 ICU adult nursing caregivers of a school hospital in Paraná. The data were collected in May and July, 2009 by recorded and transcribed semi-structured interviews. Four categories for analysis were identified: the aspects of ICU assistance, the meaning of healthcare for the nursing caregivers, the understanding of healthcare positive aspects and disclosing the difficulties of caring. The results revealed that caring is related to some factors such as mixed feelings, the mental and physical damage caused by stress; the understanding of total caring, scientific-technique procedures, family engagement in the assistance and humanization. The positive aspects are related to the welfare due to satisfaction in the work done and recognition of work. The difficulties involved death situations, psychological and biological damages, establishing links with patients and the uncaring toward the nursing caregivers.

Qualidade de vida do cuidador de enfermagem e sua relação com o cuidar; Quality of life of the nursing caregiver and its relationship with care

Objective:To identify aspects that affect the quality of life of nursing caregivers and their relationship with care in an Intensive Care Unit for Adults (A-ICU). Methods:This was a descriptive study with qualitative approach, taking as subjects 21 professionals who constitute the nursing staff of the A-ICU of a school hospital in Maringá-PR. Unstructured interview was used as a strategy to collect data, conducted between May and June 2009. Data analysis was based on the method of content analysis. The categories identified were: overlooking improvement in quality of life related to the resources in an A-ICU; the quality of life influencing the form of care; interpersonal relationships into the health team reflecting on the quality of life and care. Results:The analysis of caregivers’ speech and the results of the observation showed that there is correlation between the aspects they consider influential in their quality of life and the way of caring for patients in an A-ICU.Conclusion: The findings indicate that, among the influential aspects, the stressful factors overlap the enhancing ones. From this perspective, dealing with caregiver’s suffering might be the starting point for the improvement in quality of care in an A-ICU.

Paradigms in health care and its relationship to the nursing theories: an analytical test

DANTAS, Rodrigo Assis Neves; NÓBREGA, Walkíria Gomes da; MORAIS FILHO, Luiz Alves; MACÊDO, Eurides Araújo Bezerra de ; FONSECA , Patrícia de Cássia Bezerra; ENDERS, Bertha Cruz; MENEZES, Rejane Maria Paiva de; TORRES , Gilson de Vasconcelos. Paradigms in health care and its relationship to the nursing theories: an analytical test . Revista de Enfermagem UFPE on line. v.4,n.2, p.16-24.abr/jun. 2010. Disponível em < http://www.ufpe.br/revistaenfermagem/index.php/revista>.

Atividades profissionais da enfermagem no contexto hospitalar: influências nas relações de trabalho

The present study is based on an analysis of professional work relationships in the nursing team from the task/skills of its members as a contribution to understanding the work process in nursing. It is aimed to identify the skills of the nursing team members through the vision of nurses, technicians and nursing assistants, thus it attempts to find strategies to improve the health assistance to patients. It is a descriptive and analytical study with a qualitative approach grounded in theoretical and methodological framework of Symbolic Interactionism. The research was carried out in the participant work place, a Public Hospital of Reference for the SUS, located in the eastern health district of Natal/RN. Nineteen nursing professionals participated in the study, which seven was nurse and twelve nursing technician. As procedure to collect data we used an unstructured interview accompanied by a standard topic guide which was recorded and later transcribed. The content analysis was chosen as the main methodology to analyze the discussion, which gave rise to thematic categories that were considered relevant based on the theoretical framework of this study, and the interactionist theory. This study was in accordance with the ethical principles of the Resolution nº. 196/96, it has obtained an appropriate consent of the UFRN Research Ethics Committee. The results indicate that the professionals seen the nursing as a profession strongly attached to the health care process and as a profession that acquired a scientific status very recently. Regarding to the nursing functions in the work process in nursing, the professionals they identified the manage/administer category as the main activities developed by these professionals, thus the education and complex care in nursing categories. Concerning to the technicians and nursing assistants functions, it was figured out in the professional s opinion that there is not distinction among the attribution of these categories. The interviewed were unanimous in report that these professionals are more involved in direct patient health care through performance of basic duties in nursing care. Finally, with regard to the work relationship among nursing team members, the majority of those interviewed see this relationship as disharmony and quarrelsome and in general, there is not bond between categories that comprise the process of work in nursing. On the basis of our results we consider the importance of knowing the meaning of nursing given by these professionals; also their skills could be useful as basis to identify problems, which source could be detected in the power relationship, deviations of functions, gap between design (knowledge) and performance (doing) work, besides the loss of the global activities view in the process of nursing work

Nursing consultation applied to hypertensive clients: application of orem's self-care theory

O objetivo foi implantar a Consulta de Enfermagem para indivíduos hipertensos, utilizando-se a teoria do autocuidado de Orem e sistematizar a assistência de enfermagem. Foram entrevistados 56 pacientes, sendo 58,9% mulheres, 75% na faixa etária de 50 a 80 anos, 76,4% casados, 42,9% donas de casa, 47,2% aposentados e 67,3% com ensino fundamental completo. Utilizou-se instrumento estruturado abordando os requisitos de autocuidado universal, de desenvolvimento e de desvios de saúde. A análise dos dados possibilitou avaliar os requisitos de autocuidado alterados. No planejamento da assistência, as ações de apoio-educação foram prioridades. A teoria do autocuidado possibilitou identificar aspectos importantes para serem trabalhados pelo enfermeiro.

The use of severity indexes to estimate the risk of death in Intensive Care

The Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) and Logistic Organ Dysfunction System (LODS) are instruments used to classify Intensive Care Unit (ICU) inpatients according to the severity of their condition and risk of death, and evaluate the quality of nursing care. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the performance of SAPS II and LODS to predict the mortality of patients admitted to the ICU. The participants were 600 patients from four ICUs located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare the performance of the indexes. Results: The areas under the ROC curves of LODS (0.69) and SAPS II (0.71) indicated moderate discriminatory capacity to identify death or survival. No statistically significant differences were found between these areas (p=0.26). In conclusion, there was equivalence between SAPS II and LODS to estimate the risk of death of ICU patients.

AFFECTION IN ELDERLY CARE FROM THE NURSES' PERSPECTIVE

The objective of this study was to describe, from the nurses' perspective, the meaning of effective/affective care, the interference factors, and the learning promoted from dealing with elderly inpatients, as well as their perception of feeling ready or not to engage in caring. This qualitative study was performed with nurses from a hospital located in the Midwestern region of the State of Sao Paulo. The findings show that the meaning of providing effective/affective care involves knowing the client within his/her social framework, while it crosses the borders of sheer technical care and encompasses fulfilling the client's needs and requirements. Interferences in dealing with the elderly refer to those situations connected with the patients' conditions, work dynamics, and environmental and management adaptations. All surveys showed that despite feeling well prepared, nurses are aware of the need to study fields such as geriatrics and gerontology to a deeper extent. Complete and quality care is only possible if it includes techniques, knowledge and the ability to deal with others with patience and attention to detail.

[Nursing unit: nurses co-ordinating hospital care--an answer to new challenges in acute medicine]

Some patients at university hospital no longer need frequent medical treatment but complex professional nursing care. At University Hospital (Inselspital) Bern a Nursing Unit with six beds was run as a pilot project based on experiences in British Nursing Development Units. The care concept was specifically developed and based on a definition of professional nursing, an evidence-based practice approach, resource oriented self management, and caring. Primary nursing was used, and the primary nurse was responsible for the coordination and steering of patient care. The project was evaluated prospectively. During the pilot phase, 37 patients were cared for on the NU. On average, 85% of the beds were occupied, patients were hospitalized for 21.5 days and had a mean age of 68.9 years. They were older than the University Hospital's average patient, and cases were more complex than the University Hospital's average case. The nurses' experiences were mainly positive. Their enhanced responsibility and the structured care process were seen as a challenge allowing them to enlarge their abilities. With this project, the University Hospital built up innovative services for patients with complex nursing problems. The project showed that well trained nurses can take on more responsibility for this patient group than in the context of conventional care models.