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

Women's lived experiences of disabling hearing loss in daily life

The aim of this study was to achieve a deeper understanding of what a moderate hearing loss means in daily life for middle-aged women. We used a phenomenological approach and interviewed ten women, 36–56 years old. From the analysis, one essential structure ‘Keeping in touch with life – a strain but a vital necessity’ and two interrelated themes – ‘Performing on the social scene’ and ‘Living the internal life’ emerged. The hearing loss changed their approach to daily life and relations to other people had become more demanding and challenging. Communication was interpreted by the women as their responsibility and involved feelings of unpredictability, uncertainty, stress and fatigue. The combination of the hearing loss, ill-health and the life situation at midlife, increased strains in daily life. Resources and competence in hearing rehabilitation need to be developed in order to meet the individual and long-term demands of these women and to prevent insufficient connections and ill-health

Striving for genuine connections : men's experiences of living with hearing impairment

Hearing impairment affects 16–17% of the Swedish and Danish population, where 6–8% is affected during their working life. This study aims at describing what a hearing impairment means in men's daily life. Qualitative interviews were performed on two occasions with nine men aged 35–53 years with an acquired, moderate hearing impairment and who had taken part in rehabilitation and tried out hearing aids. Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used for the analysis. Living with limited hearing emerged as ‘A never-ending striving for genuine connections…’: ‘…to other people and the surrounding world’; ‘…to find personal strategies and technical aids’; and ‘…to transform one's personality and identity’. Men in mid-life experienced hearing impairment as a continuous process which included all aspects of daily life. In order to find balance in a changed life situation and avoid ill-health, support with different aims is needed

Women’s Lived Experiences of Disabling Hearing Loss in Daily Life

The aim of this study was to achieve a deeper understanding of what a moderate hearing loss means in daily life for middle-aged women. We used a phenomenological approach and interviewed ten women, 36–56 years old. From the analysis, one essential structure ‘Keeping in touch with life – a strain but a vital necessity’ and two interrelated themes – ‘Performing on the social scene’ and ‘Living the internal life’ emerged. The hearing loss changed their approach to daily life and relations to other people had become more demanding and challenging. Communication was interpreted by the women as their responsibility and involved feelings of unpredictability, uncertainty, stress and fatigue. The combination of the hearing loss, ill-health and the life situation at midlife, increased strains in daily life. Resources and competence in hearing rehabilitation need to be developed in order to meet the individual and long-term demands of these women and to prevent insufficient connections and ill-health

Møteplassen på Kapp: Delrapport 1: Kartlegning av deltagertilfredshet

”Møteplassen på Kapp” åpnet i september i 2005. Det er et tilbud til alle innbyggere i Østre Toten kommune som søker å utvide sitt sosiale nettverk og som ønsker å være aktive ved å delta i de ulike aktivitetene som tilbys på ukedager. Møteplassen på Kapp kan betegnes som et lavterskeltilbud som skal fremme mestringsfølelse for den enkelte og styrke selvtillit. Hensikten med prosjektet var å videreutvikle de nåværende tilbudene ved Møteplassen. Første fase var å evaluere deltakernes tilfredshet med dagens aktivitetstilbud. Resultatet fra denne undersøkelsen vil danne grunnlaget i det videre utviklingsarbeidet av virksomheten. Planen er at dette skal skje i et samarbeid mellom deltagerne og prersonalet på Møtesplassen og forskere. Et spørreskjema ble besvart av 39 (53 %) av de 74 personene som har deltatt i tilbudet på Møteplassen siden oppstart. Resultatet viser at de fleste som besvarte spørreskjemaet er fornøyde med tilbudene som i dag gis ved Møteplassen. Mange deltar i flere av de aktiviteter som tilbys på ulike ukedager. Deltagarne er også ganske fornøyde med den innflytelse de har på valg av aktivitetstilbud. Enkelte aktiviteter hadde høy deltagelse, men ble ikke opplevd som å være nyttig av alle som deltok. Andre aktiviteter hadde få deltagere men opplevdes som nyttige av de fleste som deltok. En utfordring for Møteplassen blir å vurdere samsvaret mellom deltagelsen og opplevelsen av nytte. Prosjektet gjenommføres i samarbeide mellom Østre Toten kommune og Høgskolen i Gjøvik

Experiences of health and care when growing old in Norway - From the perspective of elderly immigrants with minority ethnic backgrounds

Background: Along with the growing population in Norway of older people with immigrant backgrounds from countries in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe there is a need for a better understanding of trans-cultural aging, illness experiences and care preferences among minorities and their families. Aim: This study explored older ethnic minority immigrants’ experiences of growing old in Norway with a focus on health and care. Design: An explorative, descriptive design with a grounded theory approach was used. Method: The data was collected in Norway by means of open-ended interviews with nine ethnic minority immigrants representing an age span from 63 to 85 years. In total 15 interviews were conducted, with the sampling, data collection and analysis carried out simultaneously and guided by the constant comparative method. Results: This study showed that the most important issue when growing old in a new homeland as an ethnic minority immigrant was to be surrounded by one’s family. When the needs for care increased due to changes in age and health, the family was seen as the only possible solution. Feelings of fear and distrust, language barriers, and preferences for the familiar care were reasons for this. Due to cultural rules it was taken for granted that the younger generation took on responsibility for their older parents/relatives in need of care, which led to feelings of dependency and being a burden. A high price had been paid for finding a new homeland. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: The elderly immigrants’ expectations of care was found to be strongly connected with traditions from their native country, where it was taken for granted that the younger generation took the responsibility for their older parents/relatives in need of care. Our findings highlighted the dilemma of culturally determined controversies, as elderly immigrants’ beliefs and values about care within the family may be rather difficult to unite with a life in a new Western society. Nursing practice needs to implement a more family-oriented care perspective in order to meet the needs of elderly people with ethnic minority and immigrant backgrounds. Further it is important to increase elderly immigrants’ feelings of trust and cultural safety towards health-care services

Utvikling av metoder for bedre veiledning til studenter – samarbeidsprosjekt mellom alderspsykiatrisk avdeling og høgskolen

Rapporten beskriver samarbeidsprosjektet mellom alderspsykiatrisk avdeling, Sykehuset ‐Innlandet, Reinsvoll og Høgskolen i Gjøvik. Prosjektet pågikk i tidsperioden fra første august 2007 til femtende juni 2008. Hensikten med prosjektet var å utvikle metoder for bedre veiledning av studenter i praksis

Being a nurse in nursing home for patients on the edge of life

Nurses in nursing homes care for patients with complex health problems that need to be followed up by medical treatment. Most patients benefit from the treatment, but for some the treatment seems only to lengthen their death process. Sometimes questions are raised as to whether life‐sustaining treatment should be withheld/withdrawn. Decisions related to such questions are difficult to make as some patients are ‘on the edge of life’, which is understood as a transition between living and dying with an unpredictable outcome, whether the illness will lead to recovery or dying. The aim of this study was to acquire a deeper understanding of what it is to be a nurse in a nursing home for patients on the edge of life. The research design was qualitative, based on hermeneutic phenomenology. Fourteen nurses at two nursing homes were interviewed twice. The result shows that when facing a patient on the edge of life, the nurses were challenged as professionals and as human beings. Two main themes were identified, which included two sub‐themes each. The first main theme: ‘striving to do right and good for everyone’ included the sub‐themes ‘feeling certain, but accompanied by uncertainty’ and ‘being caught between too much responsibility and too little formal power’. The second main theme: ‘being a vulnerable helper – the prize and the price’, contained the sub‐themes ‘needing emotional protection in professional commitment’ and ‘feeling undervalued in spite of professional pride’. The essence was: ‘being a lonely and enduring struggler between opposite poles’. The findings revealed paradoxes in nurses’ work which might threaten nurses’ professional identity and put heavy demands on their professional performance. There is a need for formal involvement in end‐of‐life decisions from nurses, further education and support to nurses related to patients on the edge of life

Utvikling av metoder for bedre veiledning til studenter – samarbeidsprosjekt mellom alderspsykiatrisk avdeling og høgskolen

Rapporten beskriver samarbeidsprosjektet mellom alderspsykiatrisk avdeling, Sykehuset ‐Innlandet, Reinsvoll og Høgskolen i Gjøvik. Prosjektet pågikk i tidsperioden fra første august 2007 til femtende juni 2008. Hensikten med prosjektet var å utvikle metoder for bedre veiledning av studenter i praksis

Uppsatsarbete på kandidatnivå inom omvårdnad : peer-review som kvalitetssäkring

The purpose of this study was to describe degree projects on a bachelor level in nursing where peer review was used as quality assurance. Two student groups, 45 nursing students and seven registered nurses, participated. This case study describes quality assurance through collaboration between examiners. The results are focused on students´, supervisors´ and examiners` experiences during the degree process from the examiners perspective. Time disposal and criteria for a passing grade constituted factors associated with obstacles for students as well for supervisors and examiners. Peer review between two universities created opportunities for increasing awareness and validation of the quality of degree project and increased reliability for the examiner’s assessment. The study highlighted the need for collaboration between supervisors and examiners throughout the work process with student’s degree project. A model of group supervision e.g. with eight students, two supervisors and one examiner with regularly utilisation of peer-review for quality assurance is a further development to reach quality assurance in a degree project