Alessandro Sili

Nurse moral disengagement

Background: Ethics is a founding component of the nursing profession; however, nurses sometimes find it difficult to constantly adhere to the required ethical standards. There is limited knowledge about the factors that cause a committed nurse to violate standards; moral disengagement, originally developed by Bandura, is an essential variable to consider. Research objectives: This study aimed at developing and validating a nursing moral disengagement scale and investigated how moral disengagement is associated with counterproductive and citizenship behaviour at work. Research design: The research comprised a qualitative study and a quantitative study, combining a cross-validation approach and a structural equation model. Participants and research context: A total of 60 Italian nurses (63% female) involved in clinical work and enrolled as students in a postgraduate master’s programme took part in the qualitative study. In 2012, the researchers recruited 434 nurses (76% female) from different Italian hospitals using a convenience sampling method to take part in the quantitative study. Ethical considerations: All the organisations involved and the university gave ethical approval; all respondents participated on a voluntary basis and did not receive any form of compensation. Findings: The nursing moral disengagement scale comprised a total of 22 items. Results attested the mono-dimensionality of the scale and its good psychometric properties. In addition, results highlighted a significant association between moral disengagement and both counterproductive and citizenship behaviours. Discussion: Results showed that nurses sometimes resort to moral disengagement in their daily practice, bypassing moral and ethical codes that would normally prevent them from enacting behaviours that violate their norms and protocols. Conclusion: The nursing moral disengagement scale can complement personnel monitoring and assessment procedures already in place and provide additional information to nursing management for designing interventions aimed at increasing compliance with ethical codes by improving the quality of the nurses’ work environment.

Towards an integrated model of nursing competence: an overview of the literature reviews and concept analysis.

INTRODUCTION Competence is considered a fundamental element when measuring a nurses or students ability to provide nursing care, but there is no consensus on what competence really is. This paper aims to review the existing meanings and models of nursing competence. METHOD The overview of literature reviews and concept analysis was performed through a search on Pubmed, Cinahl and PsychINFO from January 2005 to September 2014. It included key words, such as: Competence Model; Professional Competence; Nursing Competence; Competency Model; Professional Competency; Nursing Competency. RESULT A total of 14 papers were found, coming from educational or clinical nursing field. It was possible to identify some common themes: description of competence determinants; confu- sion around the competence concept; lack in competence evaluation; lack when competence have to be operationalized. CONCLUSION The overview results, enriched by the literature coming out from the organiza- tional studies, build the conceptual basis of an integrated model of nursing competence. More empirical research is needed to test the theoretical assumptions.

Ridurre l’ansia preoperatoria a “suon di musica”:studio sperimentale in una Unità Operativa di Chirurgia Vascolare

L’ansia preoperatoria e un problema che affligge la gran parte dei pazienti sottoposti ad intervento chirurgico. Molti studi internazionali evidenziano gli effetti benefici dell’ascolto della musica nella riduzione dell’ansia prima di interventi chirurgici minori e procedure invasive ma non e stato valutato se la musica e efficace anche per gli interventi di chirurgia maggiore. Obiettivo. Valutare l’efficacia dell’ascolto della musica nel ridurre l’ansia nei pazienti sottoposti ad intervento chirurgico vascolare (aneurisma aorta addominale e tromboendoarterectomia). Metodo. E stato condotto un trial clinico randomizzato controllato in cui il gruppo Musicoterapia ascoltava la musica prima dell’intervento chirurgico mentre il gruppo di controllo riceveva assistenza standard. L’ansia e stata misurata con la STAI-Y, somministrata tre ore prima dell’intervento (Tempo 1) e prima dell’induzione dell’anestesia (Tempo 2). Dopo il Tempo 1, solamente i pazienti assegnati alla Musicoterapia ascoltavano la musica. Risultati. I gruppi sono confrontabili per le principali caratteristiche. Nei 50 pazienti del gruppo Musicoterapia il livello di ansia e notevolmente ridotto dopo l’ascolto della musica rispetto al gruppo di controllo (punteggio STAI-Y rispettivamente 52.2 vs 31.1; p<.001). La differenza tra i due gruppi nelle due misurazioni effettuate, spiegava il 73% di varianza. Discussione. L’ascolto della musica e efficace nella riduzione dell’ansia prima di un intervento chirurgico vascolare.

What do we know about emotional labour in nursing? A narrative review

Nurses have to manage their emotions and the expression of emotion to perform best care, and their behaviours pass through emotional labour (EL). However, EL seems to be an under-appreciated aspect of caring work and there is no synthetic portrait of literature about EL in the nursing profession. This review was conducted to synthesise and to critically analyse the literature in the nursing field related to EL. Twenty-seven papers were included and analysed with a narrative approach, where two main themes were found: EL strategies and EL antecedents and consequences. Hence, EL is a multidimensional, complex concept and it represents a nursing competence to provide the best care. Moreover, nurses have a high awareness of EL as a professional competence, which is a fundamental element to balance engagement with an appropriate degree of detachment to accomplish tasks for best practice, and to provide high-quality patient care.

Mental and physical well-being in oncology-hematology–unit personnel

ABSTRACT Health care workers (HCWs) in university hematology units (UHUs) face high job demand that can have adverse health effects. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between some job stressors and health-related quality of life among HCWs of 3 UHUs in Rome. Work-related stress was measured with the Demand–Control Questionnaire; health-related functioning with the mental component score (MCS) and physical component score (PCS) of the Short Form 12 Survey; positivity with the Positivity Scale. Data of 201 respondents were analyzed. Job demand was inversely associated with MCS (p = .05) and PCS (p = .049); job control was directly associated with PCS (p < .001) and MCS (p = .024). A high positivity scale score and high decision latitude score predicted high MCS and PCS. High job demand score predicted low MCS and PCS scores. Reduced job stressors and enhanced positive attitudes can improve HCWs’ health-related quality of life.

Nursing Student Self-efficacy in Psychomotor Skills: Findings From a Validation, Longitudinal, and Correlational Study.

Student perceptions of self-efficacy (SE) prevent stress and burnout and improve engagement in nursing education, thus increasing learning outcomes. The study aims were to (1) validate a scale measuring nursing SE in psychomotor skills (NSE-PS), (2) describe changes in NSE-PS over time, and (3) explore NSE-PS correlations with burnout and engagement. A total of 1117 nursing students participated. A significant increase in the NSE-PS scores over the years has emerged; in addition, all NSE-PS dimensions were correlated negatively with burnout and positively with engagement.