Staff activities and behaviour are the source of many feelings: relatives' interactions and relationships with staff in nursing homes.

Family members do not give up their involvement in the life of their older relatives when they move to an institution. Relatives feel that it is they who take the initiative to establish a working relationship with the staff at the nursing home. Relatives want more spontaneous information from staff, particularly about residents' daily lives, and there is a need for relatives to have opportunities to talk with staff under relaxed conditions. Staff behaviour and activities towards residents and relatives are a source of many feelings for relatives. Relatives' understandings of the challenges faced by staff are not communicated to staff, nor are positive or negative experiences explicitly passed on to staff.

'We, not them and us?' Views on the relationships and interactions between staff and relatives of older people permanently living in nursing homes.

'We, not them and us?' Views on the relationships and interactions between staff and relatives of older people permanently living in nursing homes This study describes relatives' and staffs' experiences of each other in their relationships and interactions in connection with the care of old people with dementia living in nursing homes. The aim was to identify obstacles and promoters concerning these interactions. A qualitative method was used. Data were collected from 27 hours of observations of group discussions about relatives' and staffs' communication, interactions and experiences. Three different groups, with eight participants, relatives, staff and a group leader in each, met six times during a period of 3 months. Findings indicate that the experiences that relatives and staff have of each other are related to issues about influence, participation, trust and measures to avoid conflicts. These conclusions build on concrete descriptions about care, activities, competence, communication and visits given by research participants. Experiences of situations were sometimes contradictory between relatives and staff. This implies that the potential for cooperation between relatives and staff in care of the elderly is not fully utilized. Suggestions for enhancing the relationships between relatives and staff are: pre-planned informal, individual conversations between relatives and staff; development of ways to give regular two-way feedback about matters concerning the resident and the relationship between staff and relatives; giving staff credit for measures taken to facilitate relatives' involvement in the nursing home care; measures to improve documentation about families' involvement; and working together with minor practical tasks.

How the relatives of elderly patients in institutional care perceive the staff.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how relatives in the next generation to elderly patients in institutional care perceive the staff. The study was carried out using unstructured interviews lasting 60/90 min, followed by a semi-structured interview lasting about 30 min for each participant. The interviews were analysed by thematic content analysis. The findings gave a picture of how seven relatives perceived the staff. On the whole, they were content with the physical care given, but they had some doubts about the psychological care. Some were worried about what to do during visiting time. Communication between relatives and staff was on a superficial level and concerned mostly practical matters, and it was relative who had to take the initiative in interactions. The relatives found it very difficult to express criticism. The environment and the possibilities of being out of doors were of importance to the relatives, since they were aware that the nursing home was their parents' last home. The results of this study provide the impetus for further research on topics relating to relative/staff interaction.

[Group-based learning in continuing education in general practice. A further experiences with the working method in a guidance group]. / Gruppebasert laering i allmennmedisinsk etterutdanning. En videreføring av arbeidsmåten i veiledningsgruppene.

We are seven general practitioners who have developed and tested a two-year programme to follow up the group-based training programme for general practice in Norway. The basic idea is to learn by reflecting on one's own consultations with patients. All consultations are registered by each doctor on a special form which allows both a narrative description of the consultation and a formal registration of data, including reasons for contact, diagnostic considerations, the doctor's attempts to elicit the patient's concerns and provide information, and specification of the doctor's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the consultation. The material is shared and deepened at monthly group meetings. Simple statistical analysis is used. Each doctor also shows videotaped consultations to the group. Our learning has taken place at four levels: clinical medicine, knowledge about one's own practice and about general practice as a discipline, and experience of collecting and analyzing clinical data. We conclude that the programme is enjoyable and feasible, we recommend it to other groups.

Abdominopelvic radiation for stage I-II ovarian cancer. The effect of grade on outcome.

The initial postoperative treatment of 31 patients with stage I-II ovarian cancer of epithelial origin, consisted of abdominopelvic radiotherapy. The 5-year survival was significantly better in stage I as compared to stage II (81.1% vs 36.3%). There was a consistent trend in both stages for better outcome in grades 1-2. This trend, however, reached statistical significance only for PFI. Most of the patients with recurrent disease had grade 3 tumors. While satisfactory treatment results may be achieved with postoperative radiotherapy for stage I-II tumors which are well or moderately differentiated, it is not recommended for undifferentiated tumors.

Prediction of cervical and low-back pain based on routine school health examinations. A nine- to twelve-year follow-up study.

The school health records of 302 persons from the village of Röros, Norway, were scrutinized concerning the notes made by the author when performing a routine school health examination of all the subjects, then aged 16, in the years 1970-73. The notes concerning assessment of posture, findings on muscle palpation, subjective complaints and decisions of therapeutic measures were recorded and classified. A follow-up study was made in 1982 by sending the subjects a questionnaire asking information on subjective complaints, health care consumption and incapacity due to cervical and low-back pain during the follow-up period of 9-12 years. Information was obtained from 98% of the material. The initial findings at the school health examination were considered as risk factors, and the reported morbidity during follow-up period as outcome measures. Morbidity from cervical and low-back pain in the groups with and without each risk factor was then compared. The results show that muscular tension in adolescence, especially in the neck and shoulders, is a significant risk factor for later excess morbidity from cervical pain. No consistent risk factor for lumbar pain was found. Cervical pain occurred more frequently in the females than in the males, while there was no difference between the sexes in the occurrence of lumbar pain. Lumbar pain tends to be somewhat more incapacitating than cervical pain.