Nurses' Descriptions (nurse + description)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Home Care Nurses' Descriptions of Important Agency Attributes

JOURNAL OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP, Issue 4 2003
Linda Flynn
Purpose: To identify attributes of home care agencies described by nurses as important to their professional practice and job satisfaction. Design: Seven focus groups with home health care staff nurses were conducted at 6 home care agencies located in three states in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. A total of 58 home care nurses participated in the study. Methods: Transcriptions of tape-recorded focus groups were subjected to open and axial coding techniques. Results: Six major categories and eight subcategories of organizational attributes described by home care nurses as important to the support of their practice and job satisfaction were identified. Conclusions: Attributes described by home health nurses were not only similar to those described by hospital-based nurses as reported in the ,magnet hospital' literature, but they also were consistent with key concepts described in theories of professional workforce organization. Findings provide insight into developing workplace environments to support home care nurses. [source]


Promoting peaceful death in the intensive care unit in Thailand

INTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
W. Kongsuwan rn
Background:, Having a peaceful death is a common wish among Thai people. Thai culture and religious beliefs offer practical ways to enhance having a peaceful death. Dying in an intensive care unit (ICU) is unnatural and oftentimes painful for the patient and their loved ones. Promoting a peaceful death is one of the least understood yet critical roles of nurses who practise in ICUs. Purpose:, To explore the ways that ICU nurses in Thailand could promote peaceful death and to attempt a definition of the concept of ,peaceful death'. Method:, Data were generated from ICU nurses' descriptions of peaceful death. These were given during in-depth telephone interviews, tape-recorded and analysed using the grounded theory method of analysis. Findings:, ICU nurses promote peaceful death through a three-dimensional process: awareness of dying; creating a caring environment; and promoting end-of-life care. Conclusions:, The study provided opportunities for nurses to understand and influence the practice of promoting peaceful death in ICUs in Thailand. Further research is needed to enhance the practices and processes necessary for promoting peaceful death among ICU patients. It is anticipated that this will advance policy changes in nursing care processes in Thailand. [source]


Downsizing and reorganization: demands, challenges and ambiguity for registered nurses

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2004
Anna Hertting MD
Background., The 1990s were characterized by substantial financial cuts, and related staff redundancies and reorganizations in the Swedish health care sector. A large hospital in Sweden was selected for the study, in which downsizing had occurred between 1995 and 1997. The number of staff in the hospital was reduced by an average of 20%, and 10% were relocated to other departments. Objective., The aims of this study were to explore registered nurses' experiences of psychosocial ,stressors' and ,motivators', and how they handled their work situations, following a period of personnel reductions and ongoing reorganization. Method., Interviews were undertaken with 14 nurses working in one Swedish hospital. Nurses were interviewed in 1997 about the recent and last round of redundancies, and were followed up 1 year later in 1998 and again in 2001. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed for thematic content. Results., Five themes emerged in relation to nurses' perceived stressors, motivators, and coping options: ,distrust towards the employer', ,concurrent demands and challenges', ,professional ambiguity, ,a wish for collaboration', and ,efforts to gain control'. A common feature was duality and ambiguity in nurses' descriptions of the phenomena studied, meaning that identified themes had underlying sub-themes with both negative and positive dimensions. Conclusions., The concurrence of ,ever-growing job demands' and ,work going unrewarded' contributed to a feeling of being taken advantage of by the employer. The ,waste of human resources' and ,competence drain' that followed redundancies provoked anger. Unfulfilled collaboration with doctors was a major stress producer, which related to both the downsized work organization, and the complex ,deference-dominance' doctor,nurse relationship. The well-being of nurses depends on being an equal/parallel health professional in a comprehensive team that shares knowledge and improves collaborative care of patients. A consciously formulated nursing philosophy emerged as a health-promoting resource. This study demonstrates the importance of analysing feelings relating to professional ambiguity and gaining influence in a gender-related, hierarchical environment, and the need to support professional assertiveness in relation to superiors and doctors. It is also important to stress considerations that relate to differences in the age, care philosophy, and psychosocial health conditions of nurses. [source]


Getting Your Feet Wet: Becoming a Public Health Nurse, Part 1

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 1 2004
D.N.Sc., Lee SmithBattle R.N.
Abstract While the competencies and theory relevant to public health nursing (PHN) practice continue to be described, much less attention has been given to the knowledge derived from practice (clinical know-how) and the development of PHN expertise. A study was designed to address this gap by recruiting nurses with varied levels of experience and from various practice sites. A convenience sample of 28 public health nurses and seven administrators/supervisors were interviewed. A subsample, comprised of less-experienced public health nurses, were followed longitudinally over an 18-month period. Data included more than 130 clinical episodes and approximately 900 pages of transcripts and field notes. A series of interpretive sessions focused on identifying salient aspects of the text and comparing and contrasting what showed up as compelling, puzzling, and meaningful in public health nurses' descriptions. This interpretive analysis revealed changes in understanding of practice and captured the development of clinical know-how. In Part 1, we describe the sample, study design, and two aspects of clinical knowledge development,grappling with the unfamiliar and learning relational skills,that surfaced in nurses' descriptions of early clinical practice. In Part 2, which is to be published in the next issue of Public Health Nursing (SmithBattle, Diekemper, & Leander, 2004), we explore gradual shifts in public health nurses' understanding of practice that led to their engagement in upstream, population-focused activities. Implications of these findings for supporting the clinical learning of public health nurses and the development of expertise are described. [source]