Being a nurse leader in bedside nursing in hospital and community care contexts in Norway and Sweden

This is an open access article. You can find it online by following this link: http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/jnep/article/view/3418The article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Background: The changes of health care that have been going on the latest decades have affected nurse leaders’ role in bedside nursing in hospitals and community care in Norway and Sweden as in many other countries. Aim: This study aimed at describing nurse leaders’ working situation, role experience and role performance in bedside nursing in hospital and community care contexts in Norway and Sweden. Methods: Twenty-four nurse leaders in three hospitals and ten nursing homes/sheltered accommodations in urban and rural areas in Norway and Sweden participated in qualitative interviews. Data was analyzed using inductive content analysis. In addition background information was used for providing deeper understanding of the leaders’ working situation. Findings: The leader responsibilities concerned safeguarding the quality in daily care, upholding a good workplace environment, developing nursing care, and keeping the budget in balance. Being in an ‘in-between’ position with more responsibility than authority in the role was common for all leaders. Four characteristic groups of leaders; ‘the patient guardian’, ‘the manager’, ‘the climber’, and ‘the unconscious’, illustrated different pattern found. Conclusion: Our study illuminates the necessity of improvement of competence requirements, authority-responsibility balance, administrative and emotional support, and competence development in regard to bedside nurse leaders

Från organiserad till oorganiserad - En kartläggning av de mekanismer som styr utträden från GS-facket

Bakgrund: Den svenska arbetsmarknaden är uppbyggd kring välorganiserade arbetstagare och arbetsgivare. Idag är det allt fler arbetstagare som väljer att stå utanför facklig organisering. Detta kan i framtiden bli ett hot mot den rådande svenska arbetsmarknadsmodellen. Idén till uppsatsen väcktes ur föreställningen om att det finns ett behov av att förstå varför medlemmar väljer att gå ur facket innan man börjar rekrytera nya. Detta för att stoppa tappet så att inte de nyrekryterade snart går ut ur facket igen. Tidigare studier: I denna studie är en speciell grupp av utträden av intresse. Denna grupp definieras som påverkningsbara. En definition som innebär att man har blivit medlem men valt att gå ur facket och arbetar efter utträdet som kollektivanställd på en arbetsplats med ett kollektivavtal ägt av Grafisk och skog-facket (GS). De som blir pensionärer, byter arbete eller blir arbetslösa definieras i den här studien inte som påverkningsbara. Idag finns en del tidigare studier om fackliga utträden, dock inte berörandes gruppen påverkningsbara. Avgränsning: Fackförbundet som kommer att studeras närmare är GS. Förbundet består av 15 avdelningar varav den här studien endast tittar närmare på avdelning 6. Syftet med studien: Att kartlägga de motiv som de påverkningsbara anger vid utträdet samt studera de mekanismer som styr motiven. Detta för att på ett bättre sätt kunna lägga fram effektiva strategier. Metod: En enkätundersökning på totalurval av särskilda utträden 2009-2013 genomfört genom telefonintervjuer ligger till grund för det empiriska materialet. Analys och slutsats: Studien fann att de vanligaste motiven till utträde bland de påverkningsbara är olika former av missnöjen, antingen riktat mot ombudsmän eller att man inte uppfattar att facket gör någon nytta. Därefter kommer ekonomiskt orienterade orsaker så som att medlemskapet upplevs som för dyrt. De mekanismer som styr utträdena är arbetsplatsens sammansättning. Stora arbetsplatser med hög organisationsgrad är tillsammans med små arbetsplatser med låg organisationsgrad de högriskföretag där medlemmar är som mest benägna att begära utträde. Beroende på vilken typ av högriskföretag det rör sig om skiljer sig också motiven åt. Slutsatsen blir att facket bör arbeta mer intensivt mot företag som matchar kriterierna för att vara högriskföretag. För att förhindra att utträden sker dras också slutsatsen att det krävs en omfattande utbildning av de medlemmar som finns i organisationen idag då samtliga intervjusvar vittnar om en bristande kunskap i vad facket arbetar med

Straffet på avskrivning

See abstract in article

Design for Accessibility: The Development of Public Transport Vehicles with Regard to Mobility Impaired Passengers

The objective of this thesis is to show how a knowledge basis and requirements for vehicles, for the accommodation of mobility impaired people, can be worked out and specified through experimental studies with selected groups of subjects as well as how requirement specifications can be formulated for use in the development process of vehicles. The overall hypothesis underlying this thesis is that integrating the requirements of mobility impaired people in the normal development process of vehicles produces a superior vehicle compared to redesigning or modifying a complete vehicle. A working method for the development is proposed, based on the development process used by vehicle manufacturers and on a user oriented product development process, focusing on the analysis of the user in the use situation. <p> The work contains experimental studies of defined subsystems of vehicles, carried out with selected groups of subjects, for the purpose of specifying the functional requirements on the shape, dimensions and performance of the systems. The experimental studies have dealt with entrances and seats in buses, entrances of taxi cars, wheelchair and occupant restraint systems and the traversing of step obstacles with manual wheelchairs. <p> A description and analysis of the development process of vehicles and a user oriented product development process are presented as well as a case study showing an example of how to define a requirement specification for buses based on the results of the experimental studies carried out. Principles for the selection of test subjects, methods for the recording and analysis of data as well as for dealing with conflicting requirements are discussed

Beds in acute somatic wards. Patient and staff perspectives.A study of activities, functions, opinions, problems and requirements

Hospital beds have to fulfil many demands from both patients and staff. During the last decade, treatment of patients in hospitals has undergone great changes in technical, medical and nursing methods. However, the design and basic functions of the standard hospital beds have not been changed since the 1960s. The present studies, therefore, aimed to reveal whether the beds used in modern acute wards are appropriate for their purposes and whether and how their properties can be improved to further satisfy their users. An inventory of all the beds for adults was performed to find out what types of beds are used. Interviews were carried out with 49 head nurses and 60 patients to assess their opinions concerning hospital beds. An observation study at two wards was performed to assess how the beds are used. A questionnaire study with 74 nurses and an experimental study with 19 nurses were performed to assess the staff's opinions concerning the hos-pital beds and to explore the efforts and difficulties when transporting patients in beds.The head nurses put forward many complaints regarding the beds. They had little influ-ence with regard to the purchasing of new beds. The patients experienced that the bed and the bedside equipment were often not optimal for providing rest or for enabling them to perform activities when in bed. Different wards had similar types of beds, but the use of the beds differed between different wards. The personnel experienced unsatis-factory working postures when performing nursing tasks. Transportation was the most problematic task. The construction of the bed had a major influence on the perceived workload of the personnel.Conclusions: Hospital beds only partly fulfil the demands of patients and staff in modern medical and nursing care. Important findings are that the patients experienced the beds as being uncomfortable and not satisfying basic needs. The personnel descri-bed the beds as being unsatisfactory work tools. The thesis also presents the patients' and staff's assessment of important features of bed and bedside equipment, thereby pro-viding essential knowledge for the improvement of their functions