What is Love in Nursing Care? A Qualitative Study

Abstract What is love in nursing care? A qualitative study Recent failures in care highlighted through documents such as the Frances report have pointed to lack of kindness, respect and dignity in patient care and lack of professionalism. As a consequence, nurse education has come under the microscope, with questions about the potential to teach nurses compassion. The demonstration of these values were once, perhaps, more tangible and overt in nurse training and nursing care. The expression ‘tender loving care’ was used as an expression of nursing intervention, which often gave comfort and confidence to patients and their loved ones. There has been some speculation that as nurse training has become more ‘technical’ and degree-based, the emphasis has moved away from compassion and love in care. The aim of this study is to explore, from the perspective of nurse educators, love in nursing care and to understand how the concept of love in nursing can be integrated into education. The study design had two phases: A meta-synthesis of the literature and review which developed an understanding of love from the viewpoint of writers in theology, culture, history and sociology. How love is expressed in nursing was explored and presented. The relevant university research ethics committee provided ethical approval for the study. Qualitative semi-structured interviews using a judgement sample of volunteer nurse educators was conducted. The research question was unambiguous, ‘What is love in nursing care’? The transcripts of the interviews were analysed using Framework Analysis that is appropriate for health care and policy research. The commentary that these educators chose to use revealed four themes, human values, therapeutic relationships, attitude and context, which make up love in nursing care. The nurse educators in this research gave meaning to human values through their description of the reciprocity experienced in care, the interconnectedness which can occur with the maintenance of professional boundaries and through the unconditional positive regard described as knowing another’s vulnerability and being there for that person

Teaching social studies content to students with autism using a graphic organizer intervention

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) emphasizes the teaching of social studies to provide students with information, critical thinking skills, and experiences to allow them to grow into responsible and effective citizens. In the past more attention was given to creating central standards in the area of social studies (National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, 2010). There has been very little research in academic skill acquisition for students with developmental disabilities (Browder et al., 2006). There were no studies found that addressed social studies instruction for student with developmental disabilities. One of the barriers to teaching social studies to students without and with disabilities is students’ ability to read and understand written expository text. This current study investigated the use of specific vocabulary of social studies instruction to teach middle school students with autism to use a modified graphic organizer procedure to promote improved expository text comprehension in social studies topic area of United States History. Three students were instructed to use a modified graphic organizer intervention to answer nine items from self-read history passages. Results indicated that each of the three students increased their ability to independently respond to the nine items on the graphic organizer

Professional learning needs in using video calls identified through workshops

BACKGROUND: Most people want to die at home but only half do. Supporting patients in rural locations is challenging. Video calls such as Skype, might help but are not routinely used; we should consider learning needs to increase uptake and ensure effective use. We aimed to identify learning needs of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in using video calls to support patients (and their carers) to die at home. METHODS: Face-to-face workshops were held in five Southwest England locations. Participants discussed advantages, disadvantages, scenarios for use, and the learning needs of video call users. Ideas were documented on flipcharts and discussions audio-recorded. The 116 participants included nurses, allied HCPs, doctors and previously bereaved volunteers. Lists of advantages, disadvantages, scenarios and learning needs were compiled and circulated to participants. In a subsequent online workshop, 21 participants ranked seven groups of learning needs in priority order. RESULTS: Most participants thought video calls could be used to advantage in many end-of-life scenarios, especially in rural areas. Seven themes, covering 59 learning needs for HCPs, were identified (in priority order): (i) confidence and technical ability in using video calls; (ii) being aware of how video calls fit into clinical practice; (iii) managing video calls; (iv) communication skills on ‘camera’; (v) understanding how patients and families may be affected by video call use; (vi) presenting video calls as an option to patients and families to assess their readiness; (vii) normal professional skills that become essential for effective video calls. CONCLUSIONS: Although almost ubiquitous, video call software is not routinely and effectively used in British clinical practice. Supporting patients and families at end-of-life is one example where it could be used to advantage, but clinicians need to plan and practise before using it in real situations. Learning needs were identified that could be developed into learning modules and/or courses. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0657-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

The Stoic paradox: freedom of determined action

The work deals with the problem of freedom in the theory of the early Stoics (3. c. BC) which has been a controversial issue since antiquity up to this very day. In its three parts the author examines basic aspects of this problem in order to offer his own interpretation. The first part tackles the question of action and responsibility being thus an introduction to the whole problem which in this light reveals its paradoxical form: on the one hand, the Stoics teach "fatal" determination of all motion, on the other, they defend human responsibility pointing at the specific faculty of human soul - the assent. In the second part, the author offers an analysis of the Stoic notion of reason in the full scope of its different characterizations as collection of concepts, as inner language and as specific structure of the motion of human soul. On the basis of an attempt to bring these definition together as complementary perspectives, the interpretation of the Stoic assent is proposed showing that it is to be understood as reflective turn of the reason towards itself. This claim aims also at solving the paradox of the assent - determined and autonomous in the same time: the assent is autonomous only insofar as it represents reason giving approval to its own interpretation of the world; it is however not autonomous..