Relationship Between the Problem-Solving Skills and Empathy Skills of Operating Room Nurses.

BACKGROUND: The use of empathy in problem solving and communication is a focus of nursing practice and is of great significance in raising the quality of patient care. PURPOSE: The purposes of this study are to investigate the relationship between problem solving and empathy among operating room nurses and to explore the factors that relate to these two competencies. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Study data were gathered using a personal information form, the Interpersonal Problem Solving Inventory, and the Basic Empathy Scale (N = 80). Descriptive and comparative statistics were employed to evaluate the study data. RESULTS: Age, marital status, and career length were not found to affect the subscale scores of cognitive empathy (p > .05). A negative correlation was found between the subscale scores for "diffidence" and "cognitive empathy." Moreover, the emotional empathy scores of the graduate nurses were higher than those of the master's/doctorate degree nurses to a degree that approached significance (p = .078). Furthermore, emotional empathy levels were found to decrease as the scores for insistent/persistent approach, lack of self-confidence, and educational level increased (p < .05). The descriptive characteristics of the participating nurses were found not to affect their problem-solving skills. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Problem solving is a focus of nursing practice and of great importance for raising the quality of patient care. Constructive problem-solving skills affect cognitive empathy skills. Educational level and career length were found to relate negatively and level of self-confidence was found to relate positively with level of cognitive empathy. Finally, lower empathy scores were associated with difficult working conditions in operating rooms, intense stress, and high levels of potential stress-driven conflicts between workers in work settings.

Treatment of postoperative pain and non-pharmacologic practices in nursing systematic review: Results of Turkish doctoral dissertation in 2000-2015.

OBJECTIVES: This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to identify and summarize non-pharmacologic practices used by nurses to reduce or relieve postoperative pain and the effect of such practices on pain and to criticize current evidence. METHODS: Research data were acquired by searching in the "Turkish National Database of Dissertations" in January 02 to January 31, 2016. The research sample included 13 doctoral dissertations conducted in 2000-2015 in Turkey that meet the research criteria. The dissertations included were manually evaluated for the year of registry in the database, disciplines, sample group, type and objective of the study, methods used for pain management, methods for pain assessment, and results of the study. RESULTS: Of the dissertations, 84.6% were conducted in adult patient population and approximately half of them were quasiexperimental/experimental studies. When the dissertations were searched by methods of pain control, 80% of dissertations were performed on non-pharmacologic methods. Among non-pharmacologic methods, massage and relaxation exercises were the most widely used methods at 18.6%. CONCLUSION: Non-pharmacologic pain management is an effective way to reduce pain severity and it can be independently used by nurses. Researchers of dissertations often choose non-pharmacologic practices that have no side effects, have minimum risk, are not detrimental to patients, are easy to administer, and are cost-efficient. Effective non-pharmacologic methods specific to groups by age, sex, and medical diagnosis should be identified by literature review for each non-pharmacologic method in future studies.

Health Beliefs of Midwifery Students at Istanbul University about Breast Cancer and Breast Self-Examination Acknowledgements.

Knowing the attitudes and beliefs of midwifery students toward breast cancer and breast self-examination (BSE) practice may reduce breast cancer-related deaths by increasing breast cancer awareness. This study was conducted to examine the attitudes and beliefs of midwifery students toward breast cancer and the BSE practice. The study was conducted with 160 midwifery students at Istanbul University as a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Data were collected by a part of Champion's Health Belief Model Scale and a self-administered questionnaire. The descriptive characteristics were given as frequencies and percentages. The evaluation was done with Kruskal-Wallis test, a non-parametric test. It has been observed 70.0 % among midwifery students have knowledge of breast cancer. 90.0 % of midwifery students know about BSE, however only 14.4 % among them practice BSE regularly every month. The benefit, barrier and confidence sub-dimension scores were positively associated with BSE practice regularity (p ≤ 0.05). It has been determined that more than half of midwifery students have knowledge about breast cancer and BSE, and that only a fraction of those with knowledge about BSE practice BSE regularly every month. The perceived seriousness of breast cancer and knowledge about breast cancer affect the ability of individuals to perform BSE, initiating BSE and continuing to practice BSE for early diagnosis of breast cancer. The results from the study provide the midwifery students awareness of breast cancer and BSE both for themselves and for the women for whom they take responsibility.

Barriers that prevent implementation of research findings in nursing: education-research hospitals case.

Using research results in nursing practices and basing nursing practices to evidence have been viewed as an important factor in increasing care quality. The aim of this research was to identify the barriers arising from utilizing research findings perceived by nurses. The research was conducted with participation of 748 nurses. The study is descriptive in nature, and the 'Barriers Scale' and a question form developed by the researchers were used as data collection instruments. The data were gathered through face-to-face interviews after the necessary permissions were taken. A total of 54.3% of the nurses are ≤ 30 years old, and 49.6% of them are graduates of high school-foundation degree. The nurses (63.8%) indicated the most important barrier as 'there is not enough time to read about research at work'. According to the results of this study, providing the nurses with both financial and information support after graduation is an important factor in facilitating research and using research results. Depending on the results of our study, we recommend that the number of publications in nursing and the opportunities of access to these publications be increased, and there should be more management support for research, and nurses should be provided with time.

[Approaches taken by nurses in treating postoperative pain]. / Postoperatif agri ve hemsirelik uygulamalari.

OBJECTIVES: Surgery is recognized as an important cause of pain. Expression of pain differs according to age, developmental stage, previous pain experiences, and other modifying environmental factors. The degree of postoperative pain should be reduced using different techniques, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological. This study aimed to determine the effects of various actions taken by nurses for the purpose of pain management. METHODS: One hundred eighty-nine nurses working in the surgical ward were included in this study. A questionnaire was used to investigate demographic data and the actions taken by the nurses in the study group to alleviate pain. RESULTS: The results showed that 146 of 189 nurses (77.2%) administered analgesic medication more often than employing other techniques for pain management. CONCLUSION: The other applications in pain management included patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), massage, visual analog scale (VAS), and teaching relaxation techniques, helping with mobilization, and assessing vital signs.