Nurses' Self-Relation-Becoming Theoretically Competent: The SAUC Model for Confirming Nursing

The purpose of this study was to acquire an understanding of how nurses' self-relation (view of themselves as nurses) was influenced in connection with implementation of a nursing theory, the sympathy-acceptanceunderstanding-competence model for confirming nursing. This model was developed by Gustafsson and Pörn. Twenty-two nurses'written statements evaluating mentoring during the six-month implementation process in elder care, were analyzed hermeneutically with the hypothetic-deductive method. An action-theoretic and confirmatory approach was used for facilitating theoretically specified hypotheses. The nurses increased their ability to describe nursing theoretically and gained a foundation of common nursing values. The results provided an understanding of how nurses' self-relation was strengthened by becoming theoretically competent. Inthenearfuture,manynurseswillbeworkingwiththeelderly in Sweden. The growing medicalization of elderly persons' health problems raises many questions for society. As Swedish society progresses through another era of healthcare system reforms, the need to articulate what nursing is, and can be, is more crucial than ever. For a growing discipline such as nursing, it is of equal importance to create a scientific base and to develop the practice of nursing so that the service provided meets the highest standards. Quality development within nursing in eldercare today is not only related to rendering more effective nursing care in economic terms, but it is also related to elders' legitimate claim to be cared for in a dignified manner. This claim may be seen as being related to nursing's image in society so that nurses feel proud of their profession and experience job and life satisfaction. Such pride may be related to their self-esteem. Fawcett (1995) stressed the importance of nursing theories in providing nurses with a distinctive language for nursing practice. She also proposed using conceptual models in the form of guidelines as desirable within a particular clinical agency. Nurses working in eldercare have a diminished status compared to nurses in acute care. In spite of manifesting good nursing care, the patients over time will deteriorate more and more. A Finnish study Theoretical Framework: Action-Theoretic and Confirmatory The theory of self-relation support is used as an organizing scheme for the interpretation of the data. This column reports a short introduction to the theoretical framework, selfrelation support theory in the SAUC model for confirming nursing, with the intention of providing an outline sufficient as a general background for understanding the hermeneutic interpretation of the research data (for full details, see The Self-Relation Support Theory In the theory of self-relation support the person is understood as an acting subject Self-relation is verbalized in terms of four stages based on the model of goal-directed action (Pörn, 1993): self-assessment (evaluation of their actions), self-determination (creating goals in relation to themselves), self-integration (incorporating the goals into themselves) and self-realization (attaining their goals). A parallel process is people's self-reflection (for example, beliefs regarding their assessment, goals, actions) that is involved in all these four stages. The person's motivation is interpreted as the acting subject's will to reduce the difference between the ideal self (the person wished to be) and the actual self (the person one is) by means of different projects. The confirmation is seen as a factor in human motivation and understood as evidence in relationships that strengthens the person's positive selfassessment or weakens negative self-assessment. A prerequisite for being confirmed is that there is some kind of uncertainty. The focus in the SAUC model for confirming nursing (see The self-relation support in the SAUC model for confirming nursing consists of four connected phases, S→A→U→C. In this column the model was used to acquire understanding of nurses' self-relation and then the S-phase, sympathyexpressing mentoring and nurse/mentee involvement, relates to the process of strengthening the nurse's experiences of security and confidence. This can be achieved by the mentor expressing sympathy and concern in relation to the mentee and strengthening the mentee's motivation and engagement by supporting involvement in the implementation process. The nurse's uncertainty in the S-phase may concern anxiety about the nature of nursing. The nurse's self-assessment and selfreflection will be strengthened by increased motivation and engagement in nursing related to a deeper theoretical understanding of nursing. The A-phase, acceptance-establishing mentoring and nurse/mentee influence, relate to the process of strengthening the nurse's experiences of openness and freedom by the mentor establishing acceptance. The A-phase also concerns strengthening the nurse's partnership in the group as well as supporting the verbalization of the nursing situation by supporting the nurse's influence in the implementation process

Measurement properties of the Minimal Insomnia Symptom Scale (MISS) in an elderly population in Sweden

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Insomnia is common among elderly people and associated with poor health. The Minimal Insomnia Symptom Scale (MISS) is a three item screening instrument that has been found to be psychometrically sound and capable of identifying insomnia in the general population (20-64 years). However, its measurement properties have not been studied in an elderly population. Our aim was to test the measurement properties of the MISS among people aged 65 + in Sweden, by replicating the original study in an elderly sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data from a cross-sectional survey of 548 elderly individuals were analysed in terms of assumptions of summation of items, floor/ceiling effects, reliability and optimal cut-off score by means of ROC-curve analysis and compared with self-reported insomnia criteria.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Corrected item-total correlations ranged between 0.64-0.70, floor/ceiling effects were 6.6/0.6% and reliability was 0.81. ROC analysis identified the optimal cut-off score as ≥7 (sensitivity, 0.93; specificity, 0.84; positive/negative predictive values, 0.256/0.995). Using this cut-off score, the prevalence of insomnia in the study sample was 21.7% and most frequent among women and the oldest old.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Data support the measurement properties of the MISS as a possible insomnia screening instrument for elderly persons. This study make evident that the MISS is useful for identifying elderly people with insomnia-like sleep problems. Further studies are needed to assess its usefulness in identifying clinically defined insomnia.</p

Overcoming Challenges in Teaching Qualitative Methods : an attempt to make human science research more digestible

As regards qualitative methods, facilitating the teaching-learning process remains a vital challenge for educators today, thereby making human science research accessible for students at all university levels. In paving the way towards a deepened understanding of the human science paradigm, its boundaries, sensitivity, potentials and “spirit” students may experience themselves at a loss by the complexity of understanding, or doing, a project underpinned by qualitative methods. These challenges may be due to the predominance of the natural science perspective from early school years and onwards. Moreover, research methods derived from the human science paradigm are well anchored in western philosophy, hence basic knowledge in western philosophy is inevitable but an uphill climb for some students. Learning about qualitative methods does not seldom involve a change in students’ ways of thinking about research. A fundamental understanding of the human science paradigm, is a prerequisite that may have potential to seriously influence qualitative research production as well as research utilization improvements. At all events, it is not without relevance for qualitative methods that educators are able to arm students with no less than a common denominator of what they at least should know in order to fruitfully read results from, or better yet, be able to design a project where qualitative methods are involved. This presentation report on scholarly work combined with experience based knowledge from research, teaching-learning processes as well as didactic examples of ways for paving the way towards a deepened understanding of the human science paradigm. A phenomenological hermeneutic research method based on the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur is used as the case in point

Hälsofrämjande omvårdnad : bekräftande vägledning för att skapa sin egen hälsa

Hälsofrämjande omvårdnad handlar om kunskap kring processer som leder till hälsa och avsikten är att förbättra människans upplevda hälsa, till skillnad från prevention som bygger på kunskaper om vad som orsakar sjukdom. Alla människor har rätt att avgöra, och är kapabla att avgöra, vad hälsa innebär för den egna personen. Om hälsa ses som en helhet, en samverkan mellan personens mål, förmågor och miljö kan vi också förstå att en livsstilsförändring kan ses som ett hot eller en utmaning. Vår vilja att anta en utmaning förutsätter att vi ser oss själva som ett subjekt, en aktör i vårt eget liv och att vi tror oss ha resurser att genomföra en förändring. Bakgrunden till den här boken är SAUK-modellen, som utgör en möjlig struktur för att skapa sin egen hälsa. Innehållet består av två delar; en teoribok och en guidebok. Boken kan användas både av en person som väljer att vägleda sig själv och av en person som fungerar som vägledare för någon annan. Målgruppen är i första hand blivande eller redan yrkesverksamma sjuksköterskor