bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rethinking ethnography: reconstructing nursing relationships
Authors: Manias Elizabeth , Street Annette 
Published: August 2010

Rethinking ethnography: reconstructing nursing relationships Aims of the study. Critical ethnography is being adopted increasingly by nurses as a legitimate form of research methodology. This paper explores the research practices and dilemmas that emerge from this methodology using a recently completed ethnographic study of nurse–nurse and nurse–doctor interactions in a critical care hospital setting. Background. Critical ethnography provides a useful methodology that facilitates mutual dialogue among participants. It may be limited, however, by the central role of researchers and by a tendency to negotiate participants’ realities according to a particular ‘truth’. These concerns have been strongly critiqued by poststructuralists using concepts such as discourse, subjectivity and power. By incorporating the notion of a poststructural analysis into critical ethnography, researchers are in a position to examine critically the tensions in their own practices, and their struggles with documenting and analysing ethnographic accounts. Design. Six registered nurses comprised the participants of the research group. Through the method of professional journalling, the first author of this paper explored her professional interactions with doctors and other nurses in her role as a nurse in the critical care setting under investigation. Other methods included participant observation, and individual and focus group interviews with nurse participants. Issues of methodological concern. This paper considers three issues of methodological concern: researcher/participant subjectivity; the movement from empowerment to reflexivity and the construction of one form of ethnographic ‘truth’. These issues are discussed in reference to the research relationships with the nurse participants and the process of analysing ethnographic accounts. Conclusions. In working with critical ethnography using a poststructural analysis, we were able to generate valuable insights about previously hidden areas of relationships among nurse participants in a research group during all stages of the research process. It also provided a means of informing the analysis of ethnographic texts.
Monitoring treatment fidelity in a randomized controlled trial of a complex intervention
Authors: Spillane Valerie , Byrne Mary C. , Byrne Molly , Leathem Claire S. , O’Malley Mary , Cupples Margaret E. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle. Monitoring treatment fidelity in a randomized controlled trial of a complex interventionAim. This paper is a report of a study to describe how treatment fidelity is being enhanced and monitored, using a model from the National Institutes of Health Behavior Change Consortium.Background. The objective of treatment fidelity is to minimize errors in interpreting research trial outcomes, and to ascribe those outcomes directly to the intervention at hand. Treatment fidelity procedures are included in trials of complex interventions to account for inferences made from study outcomes. Monitoring treatment fidelity can help improve study design, maximize reliability of results, increase statistical power, determine whether theory‐based interventions are responsible for observed changes, and inform the research dissemination process.Methods. Treatment fidelity recommendations from the Behavior Change Consortium were applied to the SPHERE study (Secondary Prevention of Heart DiseasE in GeneRal PracticE), a randomized controlled trial of a complex intervention. Procedures to enhance and monitor intervention implementation included standardizing training sessions, observing intervention consultations, structuring patient recall systems, and using written practice and patient care plans. The research nurse plays an important role in monitoring intervention implementation.Findings. Several methods of applying treatment fidelity procedures to monitoring interventions are possible. The procedure used may be determined by availability of appropriate personnel, fiscal constraints, or time limits. Complex interventions are not straightforward and necessitate a monitoring process at trial stage.Conclusion. The Behavior Change Consortium’s model of treatment fidelity is useful for structuring a system to monitor the implementation of a complex intervention, and helps to increase the reliability and validity of evaluation findings.
The Work‐Related Quality of Life scale for healthcare workers
Authors: Van Laar Darren , Edwards Julian A. , Easton Simon 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  The Work‐Related Quality of Life scale for healthcare workers Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Work‐Related Quality of Life scale for healthcare workers.Background.  As problems associated with stress and job satisfaction are evident for healthcare workers and nurses, a reliable tool to assess employees’ quality of working life is required. However, previous research has produced inconsistent factor structures and inadequate psychometric properties for a range of quality of working life measures. This new scale expands the concept of quality of working life by incorporating a broad six‐factor structure derived from a theoretical review of the field.Method.  We used data from a 2003 survey of 953 healthcare workers. Eighty‐six per cent of the sample is female and 36% had been employed by the organization for 1–5 years. Approximately 50% of workers were employed full‐time.Findings.  Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using split‐half data sets produced a good fit and a reliable 23‐item, six‐factor measurement model of Work‐Related Quality of Life. The factors generated were labelled: Job and Career Satisfaction, General Well‐Being, Home–Work Interface, Stress at Work, Control at Work and Working Conditions.Conclusion.  The Work‐Related Quality of Life measure is one of the most succinct yet psychometrically valid and reliable Quality of Working Life scales in the literature. We propose that it can appropriately be used in healthcare organizations to assess quality of working life. Further research is required to refine the instrument and assess its applicability to other areas.
Families’ lived experience one year after a child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes
Authors: Wennick Anne , Hallström Inger 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Families’ lived experience one year after a child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to elucidate families’ lived experience of diabetes one year after a child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.Background.  The incidence of type 1 diabetes is rapidly increasing worldwide, with a shift towards younger age groups. This illness is treated by means of an intensive management regimen that often disrupts the child’s usual activities and requires disease‐focused behaviours from the child and his or her family. However, research elucidating families’ lived experience from the perspective of all its members is sparse.Method.  A hermeneutic phenomenological study was carried out in 2004, based on interviews one year after diagnosis with 11 consecutively chosen Swedish‐speaking family members with children aged between 9 and 14 years.Findings.  The families described their one year of lived experience as living an ordinary yet different life. They experienced their lives to be neither particularly difficult nor as easy as they had been before the child was diagnosed with diabetes. Related themes were ‘feeling acceptance yet frustration’, ‘being healthy yet invisibly ill’, ‘feeling independent yet supervised’ and ‘feeling confident yet insecure’.Conclusion.  It may be helpful if healthcare professionals make use of the knowledge and experience of families living with the illness to meet their specific needs, especially when the affected child is experiencing fluctuating blood sugar levels. Thus, health‐promoting collaboration should be tailor‐made for every individual and proceed from each family’s everyday life.
Opportunities and barriers to successful learning transfer: impact of critical care skills training
Authors: Meyer Edgar , Lees Amanda , Humphris Debra , Connell N.A.D 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Opportunities and barriers to successful learning transfer: impact of critical care skills training Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to assess the impact on nursing practice of critical care skills training for ward‐based nurses.Background.  Following a government review in the UK of adult critical care provision, new ways of working were advocated to ensure that critical care services depended on the needs of the patient, not their location in the hospital. A re‐conceptualization beyond service provision in high dependency units and intensive care units was required in order to deliver an integrated service. This has ramifications for training requirements.Methods.  Semi‐structured interviews were used to explore perceived learning and learning transfer from a range of courses. The data were collected from course attendees (n = 47) and line‐managers (n = 19) across two sites between 2005 and 2006.Findings.  Learning was closely associated with the clinical application of new skills and knowledge. Commonly, course attendees and line‐managers quoted increased knowledge and confidence, better assessment skills and improved interprofessional working. Time with competency assessors, availability of expanding roles, and supernumerary time were key factors for successful learning transfer. Barriers were financial pressures on hospitals, lack of perceived relevance of the course to staff or nursing practice, and lack of time to practice skills or work with clinical skills facilitators.Conclusion.  Course design should be a collaborative activity between education providers and commissioners to ensure the impact of training on practice. Relevance of material, time to practise skills and new learning, and organizational, rather than merely individual, support are essential for successful training interventions.
Patient knowledge of atrial fibrillation: 3‐month follow‐up after an emergency room visit
Authors: Koponen Leena , Rekola Leena , Ruotsalainen Taru , Lehto Mika , Leino‐Kilpi Helena , Voipio‐Pulkki Liisa‐Maria 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Patient knowledge of atrial fibrillation: 3‐month follow‐up after an emergency room visit Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to assess patient knowledge about atrial fibrillation, its determinants and evolution during 3 months after a visit to the emergency room.Background.  Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common single diagnoses in the emergency room, and care often results in treatment modifications after which most patients are discharged home.Method.  A knowledge test was developed to measure patients’ knowledge of atrial fibrillation. Patient data from 200 patients were assessed by examining quartiles and medians. The statistical significance of changes was tested with the Sign test. A logistic regression model was built to identify variables possibly related to patient knowledge. The data were collected in 2003 in three emergency rooms in Finland.Results.  Patients had only moderate knowledge about atrial fibrillation in the emergency room, and their knowledge showed only limited improvement 3 months after the visit. They had best knowledge of the symptoms of atrial fibrillation and its effects on everyday life. There were gaps in their knowledge about this disease and how it is treated, including anticoagulation, detection of symptoms and when to seek treatment, both during the emergency room visit and 3 months thereafter. Male gender, previous atrial fibrillation diagnosis and sense of good coping with the disease were statistically significantly associated with better knowledge.Conclusion.  Informational support should be available for patients with atrial fibrillation during and after the emergency room visit. The knowledge test introduced in this paper could be developed to evaluate the educational needs of individual patients.
Evaluation of a pregnancy prevention programme using the Contraceptive Behavior Change model
Authors: Chung‐Park Min S. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Evaluation of a pregnancy prevention programme using the Contraceptive Behavior Change model Aim.  This paper is a report of the findings of a study to examine the effects of application of the Contraceptive Behavior Change model on knowledge, attitudes, perceived benefits and barriers, self‐efficacy (SE), stages of change (SOC) and contraceptive behaviours.Background.  Unintended pregnancy is a global issue; it is also a concern for the military, as it impacts on mission readiness. Effective sexuality education programmes are needed but, to date, an evaluation of existing programmes using a conceptual model is lacking in the health literature.Method.  A sample of 198 single, junior enlisted females was randomly recruited from United States of America Navy ships. An experimental design was adopted. The experimental group received two class sessions, 2 months apart, while the control group received none. The variables measured were: knowledge, attitudes, perceived benefits and barriers, SE, SOC and contraceptive behaviours. Data were collected on three separate occasions at 2‐month intervals over a 4‐month period in 2004–2005.Results.  Initially, a striking lack of knowledge was evident among study participants. The experimental groups’ knowledge increased statistically significantly with repeated interventions, while the control group’s knowledge did not change over the same period. Both groups started with no pregnancies, and at the end of the study, the pregnancy rate between the two groups was statistically significant: experimental group 0%, and control group 14%.Conclusions.  The intervention led to increased knowledge, which in turn led to avoidance of pregnancy. The proposed model was appropriate for the evaluation and consequently can be considered as an effective tool to use for development or refinement of existing programmes.
Reinstating the ‘Queen’: understanding philosophical inquiry in nursing
Authors: Pesut Barbara , Johnson Joy 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Reinstating the ‘Queen’: understanding philosophical inquiry in nursing Aim.  This paper is an introduction to the characteristics of philosophical inquiry.Background.  Despite over a century of philosophical thinking in nursing, philosophical inquiry has yet to be positioned as contributing substantially to the field of nursing’s inquiry. There is a need to articulate the nature and characteristics of philosophical inquiry for researchers new to this perspective.Method.  We begin by addressing a common question that surfaces when one begins a work that is philosophical in nature, how does one differentiate between nursing philosophy and nursing theory? We then address the nature and characteristics of philosophical inquiry. We conclude by considering the question of whether philosophical inquiry might be considered a form of qualitative inquiry.Findings.  Unlike science, which relies upon investigative methods, philosophical inquiry relies upon the capacities to think and reason. Problems characteristic of philosophical inquiry include conceptual clarification, analysis of arguments and problems related to the ontology, epistemology and ethics of nursing. Although methodological approaches to philosophical inquiry are diverse, common tools include assumptions and the intellectual processes of conceptualizing, judging and reasoning within a context of wonder.Conclusion.  Some have argued that to neglect philosophy in nursing is to place the discipline at risk. However, there is little guidance available to researchers new to this method of inquiry. By providing a beginning roadmap, our hope is that philosophical inquiry will take its place alongside scientific methods of inquiry with the goal of constructing robust knowledge for the discipline of nursing.
Stress and eustress in nursing students
Authors: Gibbons Chris , Dempster Martin , Moutray Marianne 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Stress and eustress in nursing students Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to identify experiences that led to both distress and eustress and to make recommendations to help students cope with course demands.Background.  Much of the research on stress in nursing students is quantitative in focus and all draws on their experience of distress, with little attempt to understand experiences of eustress.Method.  A series of focus groups were carried out with a volunteer sample of final year nursing students (n = 16) in the United Kingdom in 2007. The data were thematically analysed.Findings.  The themes identified were clinical experience, support, learning and teaching experience and course structure. There were experiences within each that were perceived as sources of distress and eustress. Many of the sources of distress concur with earlier findings but they are more likely to be experienced and commented on because the demands of present‐day programmes and the profile of many nursing students mean that more effort is invested in meeting educational demands. The experiential learning and patient‐care opportunity that placements provided was an important source of eustress.Conclusion.  Students who coped well drew on effective support networks and adopted a positive, optimistic perspective towards programme issues. Effective educators did not offer more time than those perceived as less effective but seemed more effective at tuning into students’ concerns, showing more empathy and offering clearer guidance.
The work of health visitors and school nurses with children with psychological and behavioural problems
Authors: Wilson Philip , Furnivall Judy , Barbour Rosaline S. , Connelly Graham , Bryce Graham , Phin Louise , Stallard Anna 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  The work of health visitors and school nurses with children with psychological and behavioural problems Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to describe the workload of health visitors and school nurses in relation to children and young people with psychological, emotional or behavioural problems, and to identify perceived challenges, obstacles and sources of satisfaction associated with this aspect of their work.Background.  There is little published information on the work performed by non‐specialist community nurses with children and young people who have psychological, emotional and behavioural problems.Method.  We analysed data from a survey conducted in 2002 – 2003 of 1049 Scottish professionals working with children and young people. Data included quantitative responses and free‐text describing the cases seen by respondents. Responses from a sub‐sample of 71 health visitors and 100 school nurses were analysed using a combination of descriptive statistics and analysis of themes emerging from the text.Findings.  Although community‐based nurses saw a relatively small number of children with psychological, emotional or behavioural problems each week, dealing with these problems took up a disproportionate amount of time. The commonest types of problem were self‐harm, externalizing behaviours and family difficulties. Few respondents had received specific training in child and adolescent mental health but most expressed a wish to receive such training.Conclusion.  The work of health visitors and school nurses in caring for children with mental health problems is substantial and important. Development of their public health role should not be at the expense of this important contribution. There is a need for rigorous evaluation of nursing mental health interventions among children and young people.
Nursing students’ perceptions of the importance of caring behaviors
Authors: Khademian Zahra , Vizeshfar Fatemeh 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Nursing students’ perceptions of the importance of caring behaviours Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to determine the nursing students’ perceptions of the importance of caring behaviours.Background.  Caring has been considered as the essence of nursing. It is believed that caring enhances patients’ health and well‐being and facilitates health promotion. Nursing education has an important role in educating the nurses with adequate caring abilities.Method.  Ninety nursing students (response rate 75%) responded to a questionnaire consisting of 55 caring behaviours adapted from items on Caring Assessment Questionnaire (Care‐Q). Behaviours were ranked on a 5‐point Likert‐type scale. The caring behaviours were categorized in seven subscales: ‘accessibles’, ‘monitors and follows through’, ‘explains and facilitates’, ‘comforts’, ‘anticipates’, ‘trusting relationship’ and ‘spiritual care’. Data were collected in Iran in 2003.Findings.  The students perceived ‘monitors and follows through’ (mean = 4·33, SD = 0·60) as the most and ‘trusting relationship’ (mean = 3·70, SD = 0·62) as the least important subscales. ‘To give patient’s treatments and medications on time’ and ‘to do voluntarily little things…’ were the most and least important caring behaviours, respectively. ‘Explains and facilitates’ statistically and significantly correlated with age (r = 0·31, P = 0·003) and programme year (r = 0·28, P = 0·025). Gender had no statistically significant influence on students’ perceptions of caring behaviours.Conclusion.  Further research is needed, using longitudinal designs, to explore nursing students’ perceptions of caring behaviours in different cultures, as well as evaluation studies of innovations in curriculum and teaching methods to improve learning in relation to cultural competence and caring concepts.
Analysis of instruments measuring nurses’ attitudes towards research utilization: a systematic review
Authors: Frasure Jamey 
Published: August 2010

AbstractTitle.  Analysis of instruments measuring nurses’ attitudes towards research utilization: a systematic review Aim.  This paper is a report of a systematic review describing instruments used to measure nurses’ attitudes towards research utilization.Background.  Researchers need to have the tools to measure nurses’ attitudes. However, limited literature critically analyses instruments and the concepts that comprise nurses’ attitudes towards research utilization.Data sources.  A search of the literature from 1982 to 2007 was performed using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, PubMed and MEDLINE data bases. The search terms were nursing research, research utilization, instruments, and nurses’ attitudes. A total of 186 sources were identified, of which 25 were reviewed.Methods.  Fourteen instruments met the criteria for in‐depth critical analysis of psychometric properties and concepts, and were included in the final review. Each instrument item was judged to be relevant to direct, indirect, persuasive and overall research utilization as defined by Estabrooks. Instruments were arranged from the strongest to the weakest reliability of the subscales to determine the instrument with the strongest psychometric properties.Results.  Indirect and overall research utilization was measured by all of the instruments. Ten instruments measured direct research utilization and nine instruments measured persuasive research utilization. The Research Utilization in Nursing Survey by Estabrooks, as adapted by Kenny, was an instrument with strong psychometric properties measuring all four concepts of nurses’ attitudes towards using and participating in research and was clinically feasible.Conclusion.  Many published instruments are available for use by nurse researchers to measure nurses’ attitude towards research utilization, but only one has been subjected to rigorous testing: the Research Utilization in Nursing Survey by Estabrooks.