Maryanne Murphy

A Survey of Nurses’ Practices and Perceptions of Family-Centered Care in Ireland

Family-centered care (FCC) is a philosophy of care that recognizes the family’s central role in the child’s life and in the delivery of care. We used a survey design to investigate the practices and perceptions of nurses toward FCC in Ireland. Data were obtained from 250 nurses in seven hospitals using the Family-Centered Care Questionnaire–Revised (FCCQ-R). Findings indicated that nurses’ practices were significantly different from their perceptions of FCC. Nurses with dual registration (children and adult) had significantly lower mean scores on the total current (practice) scale than the other registration subgroups. Nurses with a baccalaureate or a higher academic qualification had higher mean scores than nurses who held a certificate-level qualification on the total necessary (perception) scale, which assessed the activities perceived to be necessary for FCC. Findings showed that nurses support FCC but perceive the design of the health care system and parent–professional collaboration as barriers to FCC practice.

Spirituality and spiritual care – missing concepts from core undergraduate children’s nursing textbooks

Background: Spiritual care is espoused to be fundamental in children’s nursing; however, the extent to which current fundamental children’s nursing textbooks support and advocate spiritual care delivery by children’s nurses and nursing students is unknown. Aim and objectives: To examine whether or not fundamental undergraduate children’s nursing textbooks include spiritual care content. Methods: Five hundred and nineteen books were sampled from the Nursing and Midwifery Core Collection list (UK) using a survey, the Spirituality Textbook Analysis Tool (STAT) to collect data. Analysis and Results: 519 books were included in the study using the STAT and 13 books included content on children’s spirituality. There were a variety of textbooks in the audit of those that made reference to the search terms in the STAT, it was found that content mainly addressed only two areas; religious faiths and the dying child. Recommendations: Children’s nurses require education about children’s spiritual developmental stage and age appropriate spiritual assessment. A lack of detailed information in core children’s nursing textbooks means that this area of nursing practice may be taught as an adjunct to care and not as an element of holistic care which is the gold standard that children’s nurses should strive for.

The Role of the Healthcare Chaplain: A Literature Review

Healthcare chaplains operate in many healthcare sites internationally and yet their contribution is not always clearly understood by medical and healthcare staff. This review aims to explore the chaplains’ role in healthcare, with a view to informing best practice in future healthcare chaplaincy. Overall the extent of the provision and staffing of chaplaincy service internationally is unclear. From this review, several key spiritual and pastoral roles in healthcare emerge including a potential contribution to ethical decision making at the end of life. Healthcare chaplains are key personnel, already employed in many healthcare organizations, who are in a pivotal position to contribute to future developments of faith-based care, faith-sensitive pastoral, and spiritual care provision. They also have a new and evolving role in ethical support of patient, families and healthcare teams.

An Exploration of Current Approaches to and Facilities for Spiritual Care Provision in the Republic of Ireland

This study aimed to explore current approaches to and facilities for spiritual care provision in the Republic of Ireland. The findings identify that providing spiritual care to patients is a key component of hospital policy. Spiritual support is identified as the responsibility of the whole healthcare team with specific responsibility being attributed to the healthcare chaplain. Most sites provided a sacred space or quiet place for clients, visitors and staff to contemplate.

G48 Medication management in children’s nursing: A review of NIQA scores over a five year period in one irish children’s services centre

Aim The aim of this paper is to discuss a research study which examined data collected on Medication Management of the Nursing Instrument for Quality Assurance – Inpatients Children’s Services (NIQA-C) in order to describe current practice and evaluate the effectiveness of the NIQA-C instrument within children’s inpatient services. Methods Data collected from routine audits concerned with the administration, omission and safety checks of medication management of the NIQA-C instrument was collated. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics within the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) the aim of which was to reflect current practice and identify specific emerging trends within the scores for medication management within children’s inpatient services. Data was collected 26 times over a 5 year period 2012–2016. Ethical approval for this research study was received from both the University and the children’s services centre. Results Findings showed that high levels of risk were demonstrated during the process of medication administrations in terms of assessing patient’s allergy status. Additionally medium to high levels of risk were demonstrated; while observing medication administration the registered nurse left medication on the patients locker for administration at a later date and in terms of the correct procedure being followed for administration of medications (same nurses involved in the checking process administered medications at the bedside). Conclusion Recommendations for implementation of best practice guidelines will be discussed. The outcomes of the study will benefit children’s nurses to increase their awareness of the safety of medication management and ensure that evidence based research can be applied to practice. Moreover, the study outcomes will also benefit children admitted to hospital ensuring receipt of safe medication related practices.