The experiences of doctorally prepared nurses and doctoral nursing students with being mentored in the Nurse-Lead programme: A focus group study.

AIM: to explore experiences of being mentored and the contribution of the mentoring to leadership and professional development of doctorally prepared nurses and doctoral nursing students participating in the Nurse-Lead programme. BACKGROUND: Mentoring is considered important for career development of academic nurses. Doctorally prepared nurses need a wide range of professional competences to develop sustainable careers. Therefore, they may benefit from a larger network of mentors, outside their own organization, to support their professional development. Therefore, a web-based leadership and mentoring programme was developed - the Nurse Lead programme. DESIGN: A descriptive study with semi-structured focus groups. METHOD: Three focus groups were conducted during an on-site programme meeting in 2019 with twenty-one doctorally prepared nurses and doctoral nursing students. The interview guide included questions about mentoring relationships and meaning of mentoring for leadership and professional development. The interviews were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Five themes were identified: "Preferred characteristics of mentors", "Developing trusting relationships", "Engagement of the mentors", "Becoming a proficient researcher and team leader" and "Becoming an empowered and confident professional". CONCLUSION: Mentoring supported the leadership and professional development of doctorally prepared nurses and doctoral nursing students. Participants were engaged in rewarding mentoring trajectories. The results indicate that a similar approach could be followed when developing mentoring programmes in the future.

Prescription opioids among older adults: ten years of data across five countries.

BACKGROUND: Opioid use has increased globally in the recent decade. Although pain remains a significant problem among older adults, susceptibility to opioid-related harms highlights the importance of careful opioid therapy monitoring on individual and societal levels. We aimed to describe the trends of prescription opioid utilisation among residents aged ≥65 in all Nordic countries during 2009-2018. METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional measurements of opioid utilisation in 2009-2018 from nationwide registers of dispensed drugs in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The measures included annual opioid prevalence, defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1000 inhabitants per day (DIDs), and morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) per user per day. RESULTS: From 2009 to 2018, an average of 808,584 of adults aged ≥65 used opioids yearly in all five countries; an average annual prevalence of 17.0%. During this time period, the prevalence decreased in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden due to declining codeine and/or tramadol use. Iceland had the highest opioid prevalence in 2009 (30.2%), increasing to 31.7% in 2018. In the same period, DIDs decreased in all five countries, and ranged from 28.3 in Finland to 58.5 in Denmark in 2009, and from 23.0 in Finland to 54.6 in Iceland in 2018. MMEs/user/day ranged from 4.4 in Iceland to 19.6 in Denmark in 2009, and from 4.6 in Iceland to 18.8 in Denmark in 2018. In Finland, Norway, and Sweden, MMEs/user/day increased from 2009 to 2018, mainly due to increasing oxycodone utilisation. CONCLUSIONS: The stable or decreasing opioid utilisation prevalence among a majority of older adults across the Nordic countries coincides with an increase in treatment intensity in 2009-2018. We found large cross-national differences despite similarities across the countries' cultures and healthcare systems. For the aged population, national efforts should be placed on improving pain management and monitoring future trends of especially oxycodone utilisation.

Aircraft soot from conventional fuels and biofuels during ground idle and climb-out conditions: Electron microscopy and X-ray micro-spectroscopy.

Aircraft soot has a significant impact on global and local air pollution and is of particular concern for the population working at airports and living nearby. The morphology and chemistry of soot are related to its reactivity and depend mainly on engine operating conditions and fuel-type. We investigated the morphology (by transmission electron microscopy) and chemistry (by X-ray micro-spectroscopy) of soot from the exhaust of a CFM 56-7B26 turbofan engine, currently the most common engine in aviation fleet, operated in the test cell of SR Technics, Zurich airport. Standard kerosene (Jet A-1) and a biofuel blend (Jet A-1 with 32% HEFA) were used at ground idle and climb-out engine thrust, as these conditions highly influence air quality at airport areas. The results indicate that soot reactivity decreases from ground idle to climb-out conditions for both fuel types. Nearly one third of the primary soot particles generated by the blended fuel at climb-out engine thrust bear an outer amorphous shell implying higher reactivity. This characteristic referring to soot reactivity needs to be taken into account when evaluating the advantage of HEFA blending at high engine thrust. The soot type that is most prone to react with its surrounding is generated by Jet A-1 fuel at ground idle. Biofuel blending slightly lowers soot reactivity at ground idle but does the opposite at climb-out conditions. As far as soot reactivity is concerned, biofuels can prove beneficial for airports where ground idle is a common situation; the benefit of biofuels for climb-out conditions is uncertain.

Predictors of medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate potential risk factors for medication non-adherence in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. METHOD: A total of 255 patients underwent clinical assessments, neurocognitive testing and blood sampling. The patients were divided into groups of 'No', 'Partial' or 'Full' adherence. Relationships to different risk factors were analyzed. RESULTS: In schizophrenia, use of illicit substances, alcohol and poor insight were related to worse adherence. Schizophrenia patients with No adherence did better on tests of executive functioning, verbal learning and memory and had higher IQ than patients with better adherence. There were higher levels of autonomic side effects in the non-adherence group, but body mass index was lower in the Partial adherence group than in the Full adherence group. In the bipolar disorder patients, there was an association between the use of illicit substances and alcohol and poor adherence. We found no relationship between adherence behavior and neurocognition in the bipolar disorder group. CONCLUSION: Substance use is an important risk factor for non-adherence in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Poor insight is also a risk factor in schizophrenia. The results suggest that cognitive dysfunction is not a risk factor for non-adherence in these diagnostic groups.

Stability of the irritable bowel syndrome and subgroups as measured by three diagnostic criteria - a 10-year follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder, but information on its natural history is limited. AIM: To study the performance of four IBS criteria in detecting incidence and stability of categories over a 10-year period. METHOD: This study was a population-based postal study. Questionnaire was mailed to the same age- and gender-stratified random sample of the Icelandic population aged 18-75 years in 1996 and again in 2006. IBS was estimated by the Manning criteria, Rome II, Rome III, subgroups and self-report. RESULTS: Prevalence of IBS varied according to criteria: Manning showed the highest (32%) and Rome II the lowest (5%). Younger subjects and females were more likely to have IBS. Prevalence was stable over 10 years for all criteria except Rome III. There was a turnover in all IBS subgroups and a strong correlation among IBS, functional dyspepsia and heartburn. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of the IBS remained stable over a 10-year period with a turnover in symptoms. The study suggests that IBS is a cluster of symptoms that float in time between different IBS categories, functional dyspepsia and heartburn. The irritable bowel syndrome in Iceland is very common and indicates a chronic condition, which poses a heavy burden on the health care system.

Opposite relationships between cannabis use and neurocognitive functioning in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Cannabis use is associated with altered neurocognitive functioning in severe mental disorders, but data are still inconclusive and there are no studies of bipolar disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between cannabis use and neurocognition in bipolar disorder compared with schizophrenia in a naturalistic setting. METHOD: A total of 133 patients with bipolar disorder and 140 patients with schizophrenia underwent neuropsychological assessments and clinical characterization including measures of substance use. Relationships between cannabis users and neurocognitive function were explored in the two diagnostic groups. Possible interactions between diagnosis and cannabis use were investigated, and findings were controlled for possible confounders. RESULTS: In bipolar disorder subjects, cannabis use was associated with better neurocognitive function, but the opposite was the case for the schizophrenia subjects. There was a statistically significant interaction effect of diagnosis and cannabis use on focused attention (p=0.019), executive functioning (verbal fluency--set shifting) (p=0.009), logical memory-learning (p=0.007) and on logical memory-recall (p=0.004). These differences in neurocognitive function could not be explained by putative confounders. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that cannabis use may be related to improved neurocognition in bipolar disorder and compromised neurocognition in schizophrenia. The results need to be replicated in independent samples, and may suggest different underlying disease mechanisms in the two disorders.

Beliefs about medications: measurement and relationship to adherence in patients with severe mental disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) has satisfactory psychometric properties in patients with severe mental disorders and if their scores differ from those of patients with severe medical disorders. To investigate if the scores are related to medication adherence. METHOD: Two hundred and eighty psychiatric patients completed the BMQ and reported how much of their medication they had taken the past week. Serum concentrations of medications were analyzed. BMQ scores were compared with those of patients with chronic medical disorders. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha was satisfactory for all subscales. The psychiatric group scored lower on the necessity of taking medication than the medical group. Non-adherent patients felt medication to be less necessary and were more concerned about it than adherent patients. The necessity subscale predicted adherence fairly well. CONCLUSION: The BMQ has satisfactory psychometric properties for use in patients with severe mental disorders. The constructs measured by the BMQ are related to adherence in these patients.

Illicit drug use in patients with psychotic disorders compared with that in the general population: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Prevalence estimates of illicit drug use in psychotic disorders vary between studies, and only a few studies compared prevalence estimates with those in the general population. METHOD: Cross-sectional study comparing 148 stable-phase patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with 329 representative general citizens of Oslo. A total of 849 patients from the same hospital department in the same time period constituted a patient reference group. RESULTS: Lifetime illicit drug use was 44% higher (P < 0.001) in study patients than in the general population sample; while lifetime use of amphetamine/cocaine was 160% higher (P < 0.001). No differences were found between user groups for sociodemographic characteristics. CONCLUSION: Patients with psychotic disorders in stable phase had a markedly higher lifetime use of any illicit substance, especially amphetamine/cocaine, than the general population. They also seemed to use drugs more periodically. The same sociodemographic characteristics were associated with increased illicit drug use in both groups.

Differences in prevalence and patterns of substance use in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have partly overlapping clinical profiles, which include an over-representation of substance-use behaviour. There are few previous studies directly comparing substance-use patterns in the two disorders. The objective of the present study was to compare the prevalence of substance use in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and investigate possible differences in pattern and frequency of use. METHOD: A total of 336 patients with schizophrenia or bipolar spectrum disorder from a catchment area-based hospital service were included in a cross-sectional study. In addition to thorough clinical assessments, patients were interviewed about drug-use history, habits and patterns of use. The prevalence and drug-use patterns were compared between groups. RESULTS: Patients with bipolar disorder had higher rates of alcohol consumption, while schizophrenia patients more often used centrally stimulating substances, had more frequent use of non-alcoholic drugs and more often used more than one non-alcoholic drug. Single use of cannabis was more frequent in bipolar disorder. CONCLUSION: The present study showed diagnosis-specific patterns of substance use in severe mental disorder. This suggests a need for more disease-specific treatment strategies, and indicates that substance use may be an important factor in studies of overlapping disease mechanisms.

The effect of gender on emotion perception in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Impaired emotion perception is documented for schizophrenia, but findings have been mixed for bipolar disorder. In healthy samples females perform better than males. This study compared emotion perception in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and investigated the effects of gender. METHOD: Visual (facial pictures) and auditory (sentences) emotional stimuli were presented for identification and discrimination in groups of participants with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and healthy controls. RESULTS: Visual emotion perception was unimpaired in both clinical groups, but the schizophrenia sample showed reduced auditory emotion perception. Healthy males and male schizophrenia subjects performed worse than their female counterparts, whereas there were no gender differences within the bipolar group. CONCLUSION: A disease-specific auditory emotion processing deficit was confirmed in schizophrenia, especially for males. Participants with bipolar disorder performed unimpaired.

Group reminiscence among people with end-stage chronic lung diseases.

BACKGROUND: Reminiscence is a process of recalling long-forgotten memorable experiences and events through verbal interaction between the person eliciting memories and one or more persons. Reminiscence is considered an effective treatment for various groups of people, particularly the elderly. AIM: This paper describes an intervention study on group reminiscence intervention for people with end-stage chronic lung diseases. The following hypotheses were proposed: (1) Depression in people with end-stage chronic lung diseases will decrease after participating in a reminiscence group. (2) Self-esteem in people with end-stage chronic lung diseases will increase after participating in a reminiscence group. (3) People with end-stage chronic lung diseases will report increased well-being after participating in a reminiscence group. METHODS: The research design was quasi-experimental, using Beck Depression Inventory and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Survey pre- and posttreatment, in addition to conducting semistructured interviews after the treatment was finished and qualitatively evaluating outcomes of selected nursing diagnosis. A total of 12 patients participated, 10 women (mean age 70 years) and two men (mean age 86 years). The treatment was provided by two nurses to a group of patients dwelling at a long-term unit for people with end-stage lung diseases located in Iceland. A total of 13 group meetings were held, with 5-8 participants each time. Each group meeting had a preselected focus. It started with a short period of relaxation followed by a selected reading from a biography or from Icelandic literature and then the group discussion started, focusing on the topic of the day. RESULTS: The first two hypotheses were not supported. The following themes support the third hypothesis: (a) enjoyment, (b) feeling well and (c) closeness and affirmation of self and others. CONCLUSIONS: The purpose of the study was partly achieved. Although hypotheses one and two were not supported, the third was supported by the qualitative results, which clearly demonstrated that participation in the intervention increased well-being.

Immune parameters of immunised cod (Gadus morhua L.).

The immune response of cod (Gadus morhua L.) is unusual in that specific antibody response is limited or absent. In the present study cod was immunised with haptenated and non-haptenated protein antigen at two different temperatures and the antibody response monitored over a period of 18 months. Other humoral parameters of immunological importance were also analysed, namely total immunoglobulin concentration, anti-protease and spontaneous haemolytic activity. No specific antibody response was detected but increased activity of non-specific anti-TNP antibodies was observed 10-12 weeks after immunisation, irrespective of the antigen used. This antibody activity was attributed to the adjuvant used (FCA) and did not cross react with other antigens tested. Other parameters were probably not influenced by the immunisation but seasonal fluctuations were indicated. The immunoglobulin level appeared to peak in August-September and the anti-protease activity and the haemolytic activity in October-January.

Does physical exercise in addition to a multicomponent smoking cessation program increase abstinence rate and suppress weight gain? An intervention study.

Does physical exercise in addition to a multicomponent smoking cessation program increase abstinence rate and suppress weight gain? An intervention study Tobacco use is considered the single most preventable cause of premature morbidity and mortality. Smoking cessation programs aim at two interrelated purposes, to help people to give up smoking and to prevent relapse. A multicomponent intervention consisting of nicotine replacement therapy, health education, behaviour modification therapy and counselling is widely recommended in the health care literature. Smoking cessation studies from a nursing perspective are few. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare outcomes of two nurse-managed 1-year group smoking cessation interventions. Intervention 1 (n=34) was provided at a health care centre and consisted of nicotine replacement therapy, health education, behavioural modification and individual and group counselling. In intervention 2 (n=33), provided in a health club, physical exercise was added to the intervention provided in 1. Participants were self-referred with equal numbers in both interventions. A nonsignificant difference in lapse free abstinence time (LFAT) at 1 year was demonstrated between intervention 1 (20.6%, n=7) and intervention 2 (39.4%, n=13) (p=0.16, odds ratio=2.5). The difference in weight gain between intervention groups was also nonsignificant. Within intervention comparison between abstinent participants and smokers showed that abstinent participants had gained significantly more weight than smokers in intervention 2 (p=0.001), but in intervention 1 the difference was nonsignificant (p=0.2). The small sample size in the study detracts from the significance of the findings. However, a trend is observed showing that physical exercise increases the abstinence rate of participants. The conclusion is drawn that a multicomponent smoking cessation program that includes physical exercise might be an effective intervention, but further studies with a larger sample size are needed.

Application of an electronic nose to predict total volatile bases in capelin (Mallotus villosus) for fishmeal production.

An electronic nose was used as a rapid technique to monitor changes in the headspace gas above capelin (Mallotus villosus) during storage at 0 and 5 degrees C. At both temperatures, refrigeration was compared with an ice/seawater cooling system. At 5 degrees C, the effect of added 0.2% acetic acid was also tested. Electronic nose measurements were compared to measurements of total volatile bases (TVB), gas chromatography of volatile compounds, and sensory analysis. TVB analysis indicated less spoilage in seawater/ice systems than in refrigeration, but the other measurements indicated more spoilage in the seawater system compared to refrigeration. The possibility of using only a few sensors in the electronic nose to predict TVB was studied using partial least squares regression and a saturated generalized linear model. The results reported herein indicate that rapid electronic nose measurements, which require no sample preparation, can be used to predict the TVB value of the raw material stored under different conditions.

Icelandic norms for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures: name and image agreement, familiarity, and age of acquisition.

This paper presents Icelandic norms for the widely used pictorial stimuli of Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980). Norms are presented for name agreement, familiarity, imageability, rated and objective age-of-acquisition (AoA) of vocabulary, and word frequency. The ratings were collected from 103 adult participants while the objective AoA values were collected from 279 children, 2.5-11 years of age. The present norms are in many respects similar to those already collected for other language groups indicating that the stimuli will be useful for further psychological studies in Iceland. The rated AoA values show a high correlation with objective AoA (r = 0.718) thus confirming previous studies conducted with English speaking participants that rated AoA is a relatively valid measure of objective AoA. However, word frequency and familiarity are more closely correlated with rated AoA than with objective AoA indicating that these factors play some role in the ratings. Objective AoA norms are therefore to be preferred in studies of cognitive processes.

Humoral immune parameters in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) I. The effects of environmental temperature.

The effects of environmental temperature on certain humoral immune parameters in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) were studied. Serum samples were collected from captive cod, of wild origin, kept at different temperatures for 12 months. It was found that immunoglobulin and natural antibody levels increased with increasing temperature whereas the total serum protein concentration, anti-protease activity, iron concentration, unsaturated and total iron binding capacity decreased with increasing temperature. Haemolytic activity and percentage iron saturation also tended to decrease with increasing temperature although this was not statistically significant.

Humoral immune parameters in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) II. The effects of size and gender under different environmental conditions.

The effects of size and gender on several humoral immune parameters in cod were examined under different environmental conditions. Serum samples were collected from wild cod of different sizes. Two samplings were undertaken: In the spring in relatively cold waters off the north west coast of Iceland and in the fall in relatively warm waters off the west coast of Iceland. Most of the parameters increased with increasing cod size, except the haemolytic activity which decreased. Higher serum protein levels were seen in cod sampled in the fall than in the spring. In cod sampled in the spring there was an apparent difference between specimens < 75 cm in length and the larger specimens with respect to haemolytic activity and iron concentration. None of the parameters were influenced by the gender of the cod.

Outcomes of implementing primary nursing in the care of people with chronic lung diseases: the nurses' experience.

AIM: This study describes the outcomes of an action research project carried out to implement primary nursing in the care of people with chronic lung diseases at two hospital units in Iceland. METHODS: The methodological approach was the interpretative perspective. Data from transcribed interviews with 21 nurses and a research journal written by the author were analysed. Themes were generated according to dialectical procedures of interpretation. FINDINGS: The following themes were identified: close relationships with patients, continuity of care, reports of satisfied and secure patients, centrality of individual patient's needs, constant refinement of the system, sensitivity to staffing load and ambitious and responsible nurses. CONCLUSIONS: The nurses participating in this study clearly valued the possibilities that primary nursing brought in terms of higher quality of care for their patients. One of the most important components of high quality care is to know and understand patients' experiences, which is the main outcome of this study. This indicates that implementing primary nursing in the care of people with chronic lung diseases was beneficial from the point of view of the nurses. However, concerns were raised that primary nursing is more sensitive to low staffing than the system it was meant to replace.