Sandra Pennbrant

Mastering the professional role as a newly graduated registered nurse

Professional development is a process starting during undergraduate education and continuing throughout working life. A new nurses transition from school to work has been described as difficult. This study aims to develop a model describing the professional development of new nurses during their first years of work. To develop this model, constant comparative analyses were performed. The method was a qualitative study of survey data on 330 registered nurses. The results showed that mastering the professional role was the result of an ongoing process building on the nurses experiences and interactions with the surrounding environment. The professional developmental process involves the following interrelated sub-processes: evaluating and re-evaluating educational experiences, developing professional self-efficacy and developing clinical competence. These sub-processes are influenced by the following factors: social values and norms, healthcare organization, management of new nurses, co-workers, patients and significant others and the nurses own family and friends. These factors affect professional development directly, indirectly or as mediating influences and can lead to possible outcomes, as new nurses choose to remain in or leave the profession. The results underscore the importance of developing a professional nursing role within the new working context. To facilitate this professional development, new nurses need support from their nursing-school educators and their healthcare employers. The model described here will be the subject of further measurement and testing.

A trustful relationship - the importance for relatives to actively participate in the meeting with the physician

In previous research, no uniform picture emerged of the role of relatives in the meeting between an elderly patient and a physician. Knowledge about relatives’ experiences of the meeting between an elderly patient and a physician will help healthcare practitioners better understand the role of relatives during the meeting and how practitioners can assist relatives in assuming their supporting role more efficiently. The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of relatives of meeting with the physician in a hospital setting when an elderly patient is discharged from hospital care to home care, in order to identify aspects that may facilitate relatives in taking up their role in a more efficient manner. This descriptive and exploratory study is based on 20 interviews with relatives. The result shows that the physicians communication style influences the meeting between the relative, the elderly patient, and the physician, and that this style is the result of power and interaction. A trustful relationship during the meeting between the relative and the physician can increase the relatives feeling of confidence with the healthcare organization and treatment of the elderly patient. The relative has an important supporting role in the care for the elderly family member, both in the hospital and the home setting. It is likely that the relatives value as a resource, for both the patient and the physician, increases as the relative experiences feelings of confidence in the meeting with the physician. It is therefore of value to increase our knowledge about the conditions and circumstances facilitating and/or hampering the meeting between the relative and the physician. The result stresses the importance of encouraging relatives to participate in the meeting. Physicians need more guidance and training in communication skills, respectful demeanor, and collaboration while meeting the relatives.

Elderly Patients' Experiences of Meeting With the Doctor: A Sociocultural Study in a Hospital Setting in Sweden

Previous research has provided contradictory findings on how important it is for elderly patients to actively participate in the meeting with their doctors. Using descriptive and exploratory interview study with 20 elderly patients discharged from medicine and geriatric hospital care in Sweden, the authors describe how elderly patients experience their meetings with their doctor in the hospital setting. The results indicate that the meetings between elderly patients and doctors are influenced by the nature and shape of the conversation, which are influenced by power and interaction. A good relationship between an elderly patient and his or her doctor leads to reduced apprehension and increased faith in the health care system. This study was inspired by the sociocultural perspective and highlights the importance of the health care sector becoming a learning organization in which doctors are trained to prevent misunderstandings in their meetings with elderly patients.

Work-integrated learning: a didactic tool to develop praxis in nurse education.

Praxis is a concept that is both vague and overused in nursing science. Hence, a more stringent use of the concept praxis could help clarify the connections between theory and practice. The purpose of this theoretical article was to highlight the advantages of developing praxis in nursing education. By using praxis as a dialectic concept, nurse educators can make significant contributions to clinical practice by clarifying that theory and practice are perceived as 2 sides of same coin, leading to a move from “being in praxis” to “being of praxis,” a way to develop the professions autonomy.

Information about sexual activity after hip replacement : A literature review

Sexual activity is an important aspect of quality of life and contributes to healing and recovery. Adequate information may minimize post-operative risks and improve wellbeing. The aim of this literature review was to identify and review articles regarding the information on sexual activity after hip replacement provided to or obtained by patients and partners prior to their hip replacement surgery. The literature search was performed in the following databases: CINAHL, PubMed/Medline, MEDLINE (via Ebscoost) and Scopus. The results underline the importance of providing hip replacement patients and partners with relevant information, to reduce their concerns and improve their satisfaction and quality of life. Such information could promote person-centered care for patient and partner, and increase long-term cost-effectiveness for the healthcare organization. Information to patients and partners on post-hip-replacement sexual limitations has not been closely studied. Further research is needed to help healthcare providers promote patients’ and partners’ sexual health and quality of life and improve wellbeing.

The Emperor's new clothes : discourse analysis on how the patient is constructed in the new Swedish Patient Act.

The Swedish welfare debate increasingly focuses on market liberal notions and its healthcare perspective aims for more patient-centered care. This article examines the new Swedish Patient Act describing and analyzing how the patient is constructed in government documents. This study takes a Foucauldian discourse analysis approach following Willigs analysis guide. The act contains an entitlement discourse for patients and a requirement discourse for healthcare personnel. These two discourses are governed by a values-based healthcare discourse. Neo-liberal ideology, in the form of New Public Management discourse, focusing on the value of efficiency and competition, is given a hegemonic position as laws and regulations are used to strengthen it. The new Swedish Patient Act seems to further strengthen this development. The Act underlines the increased entitlement for patients, but it is not legally binding as it offers patients only indirect entitlement to influence and control their care. To safeguard the patients entitlement under the Patient Act, healthcare personnel should be made aware of the contents of the Act, so that they can contribute to the creation of systems and working methods that facilitate respect of the Acts provisions in daily healthcare work.

Nursing and learning – healthcare pedagogics and work-integrated learning

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe work-integrated learning (WIL) related to healthcare pedagogics, and to describe the distinctive aspects of research on WIL with specialization in healthcare pedagogics. Design/methodology/approach The general purpose of this theoretical paper is to define and formulate a research agenda within WIL with specialization in healthcare pedagogics. Findings WIL with specialization in healthcare pedagogics is a multidisciplinary field of knowledge encompassing education, health sciences and social sciences, and focuses on research and knowledge-creation involving nursing schools in higher education, healthcare organizations and the surrounding community. Originality/value The starting point of the research environment is the ambition to gain knowledge about the conditions, processes and outcomes in healthcare education and healthcare organizations, both individually and collectively, intra- and inter-professionally, in the perspective of life-long learning. WIL with specialization in healthcare pedagogics is a research area that can carry out important research in healthcare education and healthcare organization and, thus, contribute to high-quality care meeting current and future needs.

Distriktssköterskans arbete med att stödja patienter i rökavvänjning District nurses’ efforts to support patients in smoking cessation

Background Smoking is a public health problem. Supporting patients to achieve lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, is one way for the district nurse to promote health. Aim To investigate how the district nurse promotes health and supports patients in smoking cessation. Method A questionnaire was sent to 124 district nurses working with smoking cessation in a region in western Sweden. The questionnaire contained both closed and open questions. The responses were analysed using descriptive statistics and manifest content analysis. Findings The district nurses’ work includes motivating, educating, supporting, informing and following up patients in need of smoking cessation. In total, 63% of the district nurses consider themselves to have an important function in smoking cessation. Lack of time is a substantial problem and district nurses devote 1–10 hours per week on smoking cessation. Of the 124 nurses, 43% felt that they did not have enough knowledge about smoking cessation. The district nurses wished to benefit from the experience of other colleagues. Conclusion District nurses experience lack of time and knowledge. In order to provide quality support for smoking cessation, district nurses should possess medical knowledge and be empathic and involved.

Distriktssköterskans arbete med att stödja patienter i rökavvänjning

Background Smoking is a public health problem. Supporting patients to achieve lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, is one way for the district nurse to promote health. Aim To investigate how the district nurse promotes health and supports patients in smoking cessation. Method A questionnaire was sent to 124 district nurses working with smoking cessation in a region in western Sweden. The questionnaire contained both closed and open questions. The responses were analysed using descriptive statistics and manifest content analysis. Findings The district nurses’ work includes motivating, educating, supporting, informing and following up patients in need of smoking cessation. In total, 63% of the district nurses consider themselves to have an important function in smoking cessation. Lack of time is a substantial problem and district nurses devote 1–10 hours per week on smoking cessation. Of the 124 nurses, 43% felt that they did not have enough knowledge about smoking cessation. The district nurses wished to benefit from the experience of other colleagues. Conclusion District nurses experience lack of time and knowledge. In order to provide quality support for smoking cessation, district nurses should possess medical knowledge and be empathic and involved.

Attitudes Emphasizing in the Clinical Supervision of Medical Students : An Ethnographic Study in Sweden

Introduction: Medical students professional attitudes are expected to be developed in medical school, and particularly during clinical education. In this study we focus on supervision in order to ...