Silvia Käppeli

Between suffering and redemption. Religious motives in Jewish and Christian cancer patients' coping.

The aim of this research was to study the potential influence and significance of Jewish and Christian patients religion on their coping with cancer. After intensive methodological experimentation, the Interpretive Biography-approach, an inductive unstructured research method was applied to collect and analyse the data. In this way 100 Jewish and Christian patients were interviewed. Document analysis was performed when patients diaries were available. Comparative analysis of the patients stories made possible the identification of a number of religious motives from which the patients drew meaning to explain their suffering. The findings show that Jewish and Christian patients utilize the same religious motives. The relevance of this research for nurses lies in the finding that, for many patients, their religiousness has great potential as a resource and it should therefore be supported by nurses.

Interprofessional cooperation: why is partnership so difficult?

The present state of interpersonal cooperation from the perspective of nursing is analysed, and some explanations are presented. The history of nurse-doctor cooperation in hospital is described. Examples of professional cooperation concerning the care of geriatric patients are also presented.

A New Tool for Real-Time Pain Assessment in Experimental and Clinical Environments

Pain measurement largely depends on the ability to rate personal subjective pain. Nevertheless, pain scales can be difficult to use during medical procedures. We hypothesized that pain can be expressed intuitively and in real-time by squeezing a pressure sensitive device. We developed such a device called “Painmouse®” and tested it on healthy volunteers and patients in two separate studies: Sixteen male participants rated different painful heat stimuli via Painmouse® and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Retest was done one week later. Participants clearly distinguished four distinct pain levels using both methods. Values from the first and second sessions were comparable. Thereafter, we tested the Painmouse® by asking twelve female and male leg- ulcer patients to continuously squeeze it during the whole length of their wound-dressing change. Patients rated each step of dressing change on an 11-point numeric rating scale. Painmouse® ratings were highest for the wound cleaning and debridement step. Application of the new dressing was not evaluated as very painful. On the other hand, numeric scale ratings did not differentiate between dressing change steps. We conclude that the Painmouse® enables pain assessment even under difficult clinical circumstances, such as during a medical treatment in elderly patients.

Compassion – a forgotten tradition of nursing?

This scientific study is based on the assumption that the Jewish-Christian motive of the compassionate God is the original model of the nurse. Accordingly it investigates the Wirkungs- and Rezeptionsgeschichte (the history of the tradition) of this motive in nursing from the perspectives of Nursing Science and Jewish Studies. To this purpose it was necessary to apply a transdisciplinary and methodologically pluralistic research approach. It involved various applications of hermeneutics such as applied by theology, historiography and philosophy. The research material comprised primary sources from Jewish and Christian scriptures and commentaries as well as nursing literature from the 19th and 20th century. A comparative analysis of the phenomenology of the research object during these periods was carried out: The results support the initial assumption and show that the motive of the compassionate God was actualised over the last 2000 years. What originally appeared as a religious motive presents itself as nursing concept under the name compassion or caring in modern and post-modern nursing theory.

What sort of science does nursing require

This article represents a slightly modified paper presented at the symposium on Nursing Science held by the University of Basel in December 1998. It involves a topic analysis of the requirements for nursing science of a nursing service of a University Hospital. On the basis of this analysis a possible identity of Nursing Science is derived. It appears to be compatible both with the ethos and goals of the nursing profession and with the present system of the sciences.Dieser Artikel ist eine leicht uberarbeitete Form eines Vortrages, welchen ich am Symposium Pflegewissenschaft der Universitat Basel im Dezember 1998 gehalten habe. Er beinhaltet eine punktuelle Analyse des pflegewissenschaftlichen Bedarfs eines Universitatsspital-Pflegedienstes. Von dieser Bestandesaufnahme wird eine mogliche Identitat der Pflegewissenschaft abgeleitet, welche sowohl mit dem Ethos und den Zielen des Pflegeberufes als auch mit dem bestehenden Wissenschaftssystem kompatibel ist.

Main nursing emphasis in the operating room

Mit der vorliegenden Studie wurde bei 44 Patientinnen und Patienten, welche sich in einem Universitatsspital einem operativen Eingriff ohne Vollnarkose unterziehen musten, erhoben, welche Probleme ...This research investigated with which thoughts and nursing problems patients undergo surgery without general anaesthetic were preoccupied during their operation. In addition, information was collected on those aspects of nursing care which the patients appreciated or missed during this time. Both sets of data were collected from nurses and patients. Comparative analysis showed that patients on average list less problems than nurses. Conclusions with respect to nursing care of patients who are awake during surgery is discussed.

Dialogische Phänomenologie im Rahmen der Pflegewissenschaft – Eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit einer wenig bekannten Forschungsmethode

Die Dialogische Phanomenologie ist eine in der Pflegewissenschaft des deutschsprachigen Raums wenig bekannte interpretative Forschungsmethode. Sie basiert auf den Kernkonzepten der Phanomenologie H...