The lifeworld of multiple-birth families

Abstract Background: A multiple-birth family is one that is expecting or has same-age children, such as twins, triplets, or more. Being a parent of such families is different than other families. Methods: The hermeneutic phenomenological research approach and van Manen’s method were employed in this research. The data consists of parents’ open-form interviews conducted with nineteen parents of twins less than five years old, the documents that they submitted in writing thereafter, and researcher’s notes. Results: Three essential core themes characterize a multiple-birth parent lifeworld: “a state of constant vigilance”, “ensuring that they can continue to cope”, and “opportunities to share with other people”. Conclusions: Modalities enable us to view the lifeworld of these families and their need for different kinds of support and information from social and health care professionals. It is important for professionals to broaden their understanding and to have concrete contact with the lived experience to see things just as parents experience them. Family care nursing with multiple-birth families should be strengthened by evidence-based research

Hoitotyön johtamisen tehtävänkuvat ja johtamisosaaminen jatkuvan oppimisen opintokokonaisuuteen osallistuvilla opiskelijoilla

Tiivistelmä Tulevaisuuden muutokset sote-alalla edellyttävät hoitotyön johtajilta uudistuvaa ja vahvaa johtamisosaamista sekä jatkuvaa oppimista. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata hoitotyön johtamisen jatkuvan oppimisen opintokokonaisuudessa opiskelevien tehtävänkuvia sekä johtamisosaamista. Tutkimukseen osallistui hoitotyön johtajina toimivia tai tulevaisuudessa hoitotyön johtamistehtäviin suuntaavia hoitotyöntekijöitä (N=69). Aineisto kerättiin kyselyllä 10/2019–02/2020 ja analysoitiin tilastollisesti. Enemmistö vastaajista oli naisia ja toimi hoitotyön johtotehtävissä. Tehtävänkuvissa painottuivat henkilöstövoimavarojen suunnittelu ja johtaminen. Vähemmän niissä ilmeni strategista johtamista ja toiminnan kehittämistä, talouden johtamista sekä yhteistyötä ulkoisten sidosryhmien kanssa. Johtamisosaamisessa painottuivat hoitotyö ja sen kehittäminen sekä viestintä ja yhteistyö. Johtamisosaaminen arvioitiin heikoimmiksi talouden johtamiseen sekä palveluiden suunnitteluun ja markkinointiin liittyen. Jatkuvan oppimisen kehittämistyössä tulisi huomioida talouden johtamiseen, palvelujen suunnitteluun ja markkinointiin sekä strategiseen kumppanuuteen liittyviä teemoja. Jatkuvan oppimisen tulisi olla joustavaa sekä opiskelijoiden lähtökohtia ja aiempaa ammatillista osaamista tukevaa.Abstract Work descriptions and leadership skills of students participating in continuing education in the social- and healthcare sector The future changes in social- and health care require renewing and strong leadership skills as well as continuous learning from the health care leaders. The aim of this study was to describe the work descriptions and leadership skills of students’ participating in continuing education. Participating students (n=69) worked as leaders in health care sector or aimed to become a leader in the future. The data was collected by a questionnaire between 10/2019 and 02/2020 and analyzed statistically. Majority of the participants were women and worked as a nursing leader. The planning and management of human resources were emphasized in the participants’ work descriptions. The strategic leadership as well as development of the operations, financial management and collaboration with the external stakeholders had lower emphasis in participants work descriptions. Strongest leadership skills were reported in clinical care and its development as well as communication and collaboration. Participants considered their skills to be weakest in financial management. Further weakness was reported by participants in service planning and marketing. Based on the results, the content of future leadership educations should include themes of financial management and strategical change management in collaboration with external stakeholders

Relationships between nursing leadership and organizational, staff and patient outcomes:a systematic review of reviews

Abstract Aim: To assess and describe reviews of nursing leadership styles associated with organizational, staff and patient outcomes. Design: A systematic review of reviews. Methods: Reviews describing a search strategy and quality assessment. The review followed the PRISMA statement. Nine databases were searched in February 2022. Results: After screening 6992 records, 12 reviews were included reporting 85 outcomes for 17 relational, nine task-oriented, five passive and five destructive leadership styles. Transformational leadership, which is one of the relational styles, was the most studied among all the styles. Of the outcomes, staff outcomes were the most reported, notably job satisfaction, and patient outcomes were less reported. Also, mediating factors between relational leadership styles and staff and patient outcomes were identified. Conclusion: Extensive research shows the beneficial impacts of relational leadership; however, destructive leadership research is lacking. Relational leadership styles should be conceptually assessed. More research is needed on how nurse leadership affects patients and organizations

Structural and psychological empowerment of students obtaining continuing leadership education in Finland:a national survey

Abstract Background: In nursing, empowerment may be deemed one’s potential to gain power, achieve goals and promote one’s skills to advance positive changes in the working environment, or decentralization of authority. Empowerment is associated with nurse’’ and nurse leaders’ satisfaction, performance and organizational commitment, as well as burnout, emotional exhaustion and intentions to leave the profession. Research on nurse empowerment in relation to continuing education is sparse. Objectives: This study describes the structural and psychological empowerment levels of students beginning a collaboratively implemented continuing leadership education program. Design: Cross-sectional electronic survey. Settings: National, continuing nursing leadership education program (37 ECT) organized by five universities that provide masters level education to nurse leaders in Finland. Participants: Students (N = 85) working at nine healthcare organizations across the service system as current or prospective nurse leaders and enrolled in the continuing leadership education program. Methods: The Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire and the Work Empowerment Questionnaire were each used to measure structural and psychological empowerment, respectively. The data were collected between October 2019 and February 2020. Results: A total of 69 students participated (response rate 81%). Moderate levels of both structural and psychological empowerment were observed. In structural empowerment, the strongest dimension was access to opportunity (4.1, SD 0.7), whereas access to support was the weakest (2.7, SD 0.7). The strongest psychological empowerment dimension was verbal empowerment (8.5, SD 1.9) and the weakest was outcome empowerment (7.0, SD 1.6). Conclusions: Nurses and nurse leaders seem to lack the status and power required to impact their organizations, possibly causing them to apply for nursing leadership education. Nurse leaders should be given opportunities for continuing leadership education to improve empowerment and, as a result, staff outcomes

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for identification and discrimination of beverage spoilage yeasts using patterned substrates and gold nanoparticles

Abstract In the beverage industry, the detection of spoilage yeasts such as Wickerhamomyces anomalus and Brettanomyces bruxellensis can be labourious and time-consuming. In the present study, a simple and repeatable technique was developed for rapid yeast detection using a combination of patterned gold-coated surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates and gold nanoparticles. W. anomalus and B. bruxellensis showed several characteristic peaks, enabling the discrimination of these yeasts without chemometric analysis. The control yeast used as an indicator yeast, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, showed 7 cell wall-related peaks originating from lipids and haemoproteins. Analysing W. anomalus SERS spectra with differently sized and shaped gold nanoparticles revealed the benefit of using either large, spherical, chemically synthesised gold nanoparticles or small, laser-synthesised, gold-silicon nanoparticles for yeast detection. Additionally, the spectra showed differences in SERS signal construction for small molecules and biological cells, as the nanoparticles with best response in biological cell detection did not excel in small molecule detection. The use of small composite gold-silicon nanoparticles in combination with the SERS substrate gave distinctive spectra for all detected yeast species