Judith A. Spiers

Determinants of effective heart failure self-care: a systematic review of patients’ and caregivers’ perceptions

Context Disease management interventions for heart failure (HF) are inconsistent and very seldom incorporate the views and needs of patients and their caregivers into intervention design. Objective and data To improve intervention effectiveness and consistency, a systematic review identified 49 studies which examined the views and needs of patients with HF and their caregivers about the nature and determinants of effective HF self-care. Results The findings identify key drivers of effective self-care, such as the capacity of patients to successfully integrate self-care practices with their preferred normal daily life patterns and recognise and respond to HF symptoms in a timely manner. Conclusions Future interventions for HF self-care must involve family members throughout the intervention and harness patients’ normal daily routines.

DEFINING AND REDEFINING WORK Implications for Women's Health

In this article the authors examine the ways in which the definition of work as paid employment has affected womens health research, the knowledge and understanding of the relationships between womens work and health, and health and social policies. The authors argue for research and public policy based on an expanded definition of womens work, a redefinition that goes beyond employment to reflect the multiple contexts and dimensions of womens work as well as the diversity and differences among women.

The Interpersonal Contexts of Negotiating Care in Home Care Nurse-Patient Interactions

In this article, the author describes six interpersonal contexts within which care is negotiated between home care nurses and their patients, based on qualitative analysis of 31 videotaped visits. The interpersonal contexts were negotiation of (a) territoriality, (b) shared perceptions of the situation, (c) an amicable working relationship, (d) role synchronization, (e) knowledge, and (f) taboo topics. Analysis of moment-by-moment communication explored how social identity related to care activities is constructed, challenged, or threatened in the flow of events in the encounter. This approach does not problematize negotiation by assuming negative connotations of inequality of power; rather, it examines the therapeutic consequences of specific communication acts. It demonstrates how both nurse and patient are, paradoxically, both empowered and made vulnerable through everyday conversation.

Understanding help-seeking decisions in people with heart failure: A qualitative systematic review §

OBJECTIVE To understand the process of help-seeking among heart failure patients from the perspectives of patients, caregivers and health professionals. DESIGN Systematic review using qualitative meta-synthesis. METHODS A systematic search (20th May 2011) was conducted to identify studies published in English as full papers ≥1995 reporting primary qualitative data with extractable heart failure-specific data or themes related to help-seeking in patients, caregivers or health professionals. Databases searched were: CINAHL, Medline, PsycInfo, Social Science Citation Index, Embase, Social policy/Practice, SocIndex, Ageline, Health Source Nursing, Scopus; additionally, we consulted with experts and manually searched references. RESULTS 58 studies (990 patients; 274 female, 527 male, 189 sex not described; 229 caregivers, 79 health professionals) were included. Heart failure help-seeking was embedded in daily experiences of heart failure but ongoing symptoms were confusing, ambiguous and disruptive; little support was available from professionals to interpret the presence and significance of fluctuations in symptoms for help-seeking. Other significant barriers to help-seeking were: avoidance-based coping, fear of hospitals and misplaced reluctance to be burdensome. Help-seeking was facilitated by good involvement and frank communication between patients, caregivers and health professionals and the presence of a sense of elevated personal risk. CONCLUSION Health services should harness primary care providers and support patients and caregivers to prioritize development of objective symptom monitoring skills, recognize and personally assimilate the elevated risks of heart failure and help-seeking delays and discourage avoidance-based coping and unwarranted concerns that downplay the significance of heart failure and urgency to address symptoms.

The Use of Face Work and Politeness Theory

Communication is central to nursing care. There is no framework to link communication theory to actual nursing interactions. Face work refers to ways people cooperatively attempt to promote both the others and ones own sense of self-esteem, autonomy, and solidarity in conversation. Face work theory provides a means of understanding the context of interaction and the ways in which a nurse and client choose speech patterns based on perceptions offace needs,face threats, and contextualfeatures of power, culture, and social distance. Models of face work as politeness, forms of address, and embarrassment are presented to illuminate how communication is mutually negotiated and how verbal strategies respond to the instrumental demands of the situation as well as the interpersonal needs of both participants. Nurses are often effective in practice due to their intuitive understanding offace work, but this is not explicitly recognized in current research and education.

Beliefs and Expectations of Canadian Parents Who Bring Febrile Children for Medical Care

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this survey was to study the beliefs, expectations, and satisfaction of Canadian parents regarding fever and the treatment of their febrile children. METHODS: A survey was developed exploring caregiver beliefs and treatment strategies, as well as expectations and satisfaction with medical care. Some items were modeled after previous studies to allow comparison. Caregivers with febrile children were recruited from 2005 to 2007 at 3 urgent care centers and emergency departments in Edmonton, Canada: a pediatric emergency department (n = 376), an urban urgent care center (n = 227), and a suburban urgent care clinic (n = 173). RESULTS: High and rapidly rising temperature, as well as physical symptoms associated with fever, caused concern in most parents surveyed. Seventy-four percent of parents felt that the elevated temperature from fever was dangerous and 90.3% always try to treat it. Forty degrees Celsius was the most commonly sited threshold for danger. Identifying the cause (80.6%) and seriousness (87.4%) of fever were the most com-mon stressors identified. Caregivers expected to receive information about the child’s illness and appropriate treatment. The parents most often wanted information about febrile seizures and the potential dangers of febrile illness. Only 16.7% of caregivers expected anti-biotics. Nearly 92% of subjects were usually satisfied with medical care. CONCLUSIONS: Fever phobia continues to be a significant issue for Canadian parents. As a result, they treat fever aggressively and often seek medical attention. Good communication is important for medical staff caring for febrile children and typically leads to satisfied parents.

Identifying Signals of Suffering by Linking Verbal and Facial Cues

Here, the authors describe microanalytically the two main behavioral states in suffering (enduring and emotional suffering) so that in subsequent research, appropriate comforting responses to ease and relieve suffering can be identified for each behavioral state. Their objectives were to describe the facial expressions of enduring and emotional suffering, and to link them with verbal narrative and thus develop a microanalytic description of each behavioral state. Using Ekmans modified EMFACS, they videotaped interviews with 19 participants and coded co-occurring verbal text and expressions. They also documented differences between each behavioral state and the transitions from enduring to emotional suffering. Enduring and emotional suffering are distinct and identifiable behaviors. These formerly implicit behavioral cues can be used in clinical assessment and research.

Video technology. Use in nursing research.

Video technology is becoming more popular as a research tool because it has unique features that capture accurately and comprehensively the nature of nursing phenomena. Video technology is used extensively in nursing as an educational tool or intervention, a means of monitoring quality assurance standards, and as tool to collect research data. Videotaping is useful because is provides continuous multi-media, multisensory information about the subject and its context. Credibility for video data is based on the question of to what extent do the data or results adequately represent true behavior. The three main issues in video research that impact the credibility of data are observer bias, participant reactivity to knowledge of being videotaped, and maintenance of consistent data quality. Not all threats to credibility can be overcome. The key is to acknowledge insurmountable problems, to consider their limitations in data analysis, and to evaluate and report their effects.

Worklife Improvement and Leadership Development study: A learning experience in leadership development and ''planned'' organizational change

BACKGROUND In response to increasing recognition of the importance of quality health care work environments, the Alberta Cancer Board initiated a province-wide leadership development program to plan for organizational change through a series of stages. In 2004, the Leadership Development Initiative (LDI) was implemented to facilitate organizational learning using a cohort-based leadership intervention based on a communities of practice framework. PURPOSES The aim of the Worklife Improvement and Leadership Development study was to examine both the outcomes and experiences of participants of the LDI program to better understand leadership development, implementation, and its impact on worklife quality among 5 cohorts of health care managers and staff at the Alberta Cancer Board. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH This study used both structured survey and interview methods, using a pretest-intervention-posttest quasi-experiment without a control group design, to assess the effects of LDI on worklife of leaders and staff. Surveys included the Leadership Practices Inventory and Areas of Worklife Scale, which looked at meaningfulness of work and organizational engagement. Interviews and focus group data provided a more detailed description of the experience of leadership development and perceptions of organizational worklife. FINDINGS The study revealed layers of information about the complexity of individual and collective leadership in a cohort-based design, perceptions of leadership initiatives, organizational worklife, and planned organizational change. Our findings suggest that early changes in how leaders reflected on their own skills and practices (Leading Self) were positive; however, growing disengagement as the LDI continued was evident in the focus group data, particularly when change in behavior of others was not perceived to be evident. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS To support the effectiveness and success of a leadership initiative, managers and administrators need to implement strategies designed to help leaders grow and cope with ongoing flux of organizational change and stagnation.

Characteristics of patients and families who make early return visits to the pediatric emergency department

OBJECTIVES The primary objective of this study was to identify reasons why parents make early return visits, within 72 hours of discharge from a tertiary care pediatric emergency department (PED). A secondary objective was to investigate associated demographic and diagnostic variables. METHODS A survey was conducted with a convenience sample of parents of children returning to the PED within 72 hours of discharge. A chart review was also completed for consented survey participants. Recruitment occurred from September 2005 to August 2006 at the Stollery Childrens Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. RESULTS A total of 264 parents were approached to participate. Overall, 231 surveys were returned and 212 (92%) charts were reviewed. The overall rate of early return during the study period was 5.4%. More than half of parents stated that they returned because their childs condition worsened and many parents (66.7%) reported feeling stressed. Patients were typically under 6 years of age (67.4%), and most frequently diagnosed with infectious diseases (38.0%). Patients triaged with the Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) as CTAS 2 (emergent) for initial visits were more likely to be admitted on return, regardless of age (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Variables associated with early returns included young age, diagnosis, triage acuity, and parental stress. Future variable definition should include a deeper exploration of modifiable factors such as parental stress and patient education. These next steps may help direct interventions and resources to address needs in this group and possibly pre-empt the need to return.