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.

Educators' occupational well-being in health and social care education.

BACKGROUND: The occupational well-being (OW) of educators can be defined as a balance between resources and workload factors as seen from four aspects of working life: (i) individual, (ii) working conditions, (iii) professional competence and (iv) work community. The research in this study examined the individual aspect as particular importance to the physical and mental workability of educators. AIMS: To study the individual aspect of the OW of educators as well as the associating factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was conducted among educators working in health and social care education in Finland. The data were collected with an electronic survey using the 'Occupational well-being of social and health care teachers-index questionnaire'. The data were analysed with an SPSS version 27 using descriptive statistics, explorative factor analysis and linear regression analysis. RESULTS: The educators (n = 552, response rate 31%) assessed their resources for managing their mental workload as quite poor (2.41, standard deviation [SD] 0.98). In addition, workplace support promoting OW was assessed as being quite poor (2.37, SD 0.88), and as especially requiring more measures during working hours. Associations with the individual aspect of OW were found between the personal and work-related background variables as well as overall OW. CONCLUSIONS: The perceptions of the educators indicated that resources to cope with workload factors should be promoted. Investing in educators' resources at work, enabling well-being actions during working hours and avoiding backlog situations would all help promote the educators' OW.

Phenomena of radiography science - A scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of the study is to clarify the domain of radiography science. The main goal of science is building knowledge and developing ideas and theories that explain, predict, understand or interpret the phenomena investigated. Each discipline has its own perspective to view and study the phenomena of interest. The disciplinary perspective enables researchers in radiography science to reason and conceptualize phenomena, but it can also restrict them. The aim of this review was to investigate phenomena that are at the core of the discipline of radiography science. METHODS: This study used a scoping review as the method. A systematic search was carried out in the databases: Science Direct, Pubmed, Cinahl, and Scopus. The selection of articles was conducted by predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria for the title, abstract and full text. After the exclusion process, fourteen articles were selected for a final review. The articles were analyzed with inductive content analysis. RESULTS: From the articles, 117 research interests were identified; these were merged into 17 categories and further into six main categories. The main categories represent the phenomena radiography science investigates. The phenomena are: the radiographers' profession, clinical practices in diagnostic and therapeutic patient pathways, safe and high quality use of radiation, radiographic technology, discipline, management and leadership of radiography professionals CONCLUSIONS: Radiography science has a conceptual structure of its own that needs more investigation. Radiography science researches distinctive phenomena and specialized knowledge, common to researchers from different traditions and subspecialties thus justifying its existence. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Investigating the core phenomena of interest in radiography science can support researchers in the field to focus their research and to develop the concepts of radiography.

Validation of the Youth Efficacy/Empowerment Scale - Mental Health Finnish version.

Αdolescents face mental health problems and still their mental health needs are often neglected. Empowerment provides adolescents with the skills to impact their own lives and communities in general. The aim of the study is to examine the validity and reliability of the Finnish version of the Youth Efficacy/Empowerment Scale - Mental Health (YES-MH). Data was collected through an online questionnaire from pupils aged 12-17 years in Western Finland, comprised of the following instruments; the YES-MH, the Goodman's the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to evaluate construct validity and disclose underlying structures which yielded the following subscales: Self, Services, System. The internal consistency of subscales was analyzed with Cronbach's α. Construct validity was further investigated by computing the Pearson's correlations coefficients between the subscales. Furthermore, correlations with SDQ and mental well-being dimensions were explored as measures of convergent validity. In the final model all items the Youth Efficacy/ Empowerment Scale - Mental Health were entered into the factor analysis. All factor loadings were more than 0.40, ranging from 0.63 to 0.89. All the scales exceeded the minimum reliability standard of 0.70 and all corrected item-total correlations were high. All the YES-MH subscales were significantly and positively correlated each other with correlations coefficients ranging from medium to high. Correlations of Mental Well-being score with Self and Services subscales were significant. Moreover, Self subscale was significantly correlated with all SDQ dimensions. Services subscale was significantly correlated with Emotional symptoms and total SDQ score, while System subscale was significantly correlated with Conduct problems. The exploratory factor analysis showed a clear factor structure and the results suggest that the YES-MH is a reliable scale for assessing empowerment among young people. The YES-MH can be useful for health professionals not only as an assessment tool but also when they need to evaluate mental health interventions and examine empowerment as an outcome. However, further research can provide insights for the use of the scale in specific adolescent target groups and among different ethnic groups as well.

Content of Orthopedic Patient Education Provided by Nurses in Seven European Countries.

Patients' and their significant others' education during the perioperative phase is an important and challenging aspect of care. This study explored the content of education provided by nurses to arthroplasty patients and their significant others. Data were collected with the Education of Patients-NURSE content (EPNURSE-Content), Received Knowledge of Hospital Patient (RKhp), and Received Knowledge of Significant Other (RKso) scales. The results showed that the content of education emphasized biophysiological and functional needs, differed between countries, and was related to how physically demanding nurses found their job to be and the amount of education provided. There is congruence between the received knowledge of patients and their significant others in relation to the content of education provided by nurses. The findings can support nurses in developing aid material for patients and significant others explaining the nature of education and advising them what to expect and how to optimize their participation in the process.

Improving the mix of institutional and community care for older people with dementia: an application of the balance of care approach in eight European countries.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether the mix of community and institutional long-term care (ILTC) for people with dementia (PwD) in Europe could be improved; assess the economic consequences of providing alternative services for particular groups of ILTC entrants and explore the transnational application of the 'Balance of Care' (BoC) approach. METHOD: A BoC study was undertaken in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK as part of the RightTimePlaceCare project. Drawing on information about 2014 PwD on the margins of ILTC admission, this strategic planning framework identified people whose needs could be met in more than one setting, and compared the relative costs of the possible alternatives. RESULTS: The findings suggest a noteworthy minority of ILTC entrants could be more appropriately supported in the community if enhanced services were available. This would not necessarily require innovative services, but more standard care (including personal and day care), assuming quality was ensured. Potential cost savings were identified in all countries, but community care was not always cheaper than ILTC and the ability to release resources varied between nations. CONCLUSIONS: This is believed to be the first transnational application of the BoC approach, and demonstrates its potential to provide a consistent approach to planning across different health and social care systems. Better comparative information is needed on the number of ILTC entrants with dementia, unit costs and outcomes. Nevertheless, the findings offer important evidence on the appropriateness of current provision, and the opportunity to learn from different countries' experience.

Nurses' knowledge about venous leg ulcer care: a literature review.

INTRODUCTION: There is an increasing prevalence of venous leg ulcers coinciding with increasing older people populations. They are therefore important health problems, which restrict daily activities and incur high costs. BACKGROUND: Efficient and comprehensive nursing care for people with venous leg ulcers requires knowledge of causes, presentations and characteristics, the effects that venous leg ulcers have on individuals and nursing care with evidence-based treatment. AIM: To identify the gaps between nurses' demonstrated knowledge of venous leg ulcers and the related nursing care treatment with evidence-based nursing care. METHOD: A computerized search using MEDLINE, CINAHL the COCHRANE LIBRARY was conducted. RESULTS: The initial search yielded 174 citations from which 16 relevant articles were included in this review. Four themes in venous leg ulcer nursing care emerged demonstrating nurses' knowledge gaps: assessment, physiology and the healing process, nursing care and dressings, and compression treatment. CONCLUSION: This review suggests that there is a lack of knowledge related to venous leg ulcer physiology, the healing process and how this influences care and treatment. Nurses may not be using the evidence base sufficiently well to support ulcer healing and patient well-being. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: There is a need for a positive work culture development and ongoing educational programmes aimed at improving nurses' knowledge of venous leg ulcer treatment and care, which address the themes within the results of this review.

The impact of an educational mental health intervention on adolescents' perceptions of mental illness.

Nowadays, in many countries, mental health care is primarily community based. Community perceptions of mental illness are an essential issue for the quality of life of people with mental health problems and the promotion of mental health in general. The aim of this study was to explore adolescents' perceptions of mental illness and to examine the extent to which those perceptions changed after an educational mental health intervention. The data were collected twice, before and after the educational mental health intervention. Fifty-nine pupils from two Greek secondary schools were individually interviewed, and data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. The findings show that adolescents can provide a rich description of mental illness in a multidimensional way. After the intervention, they provide different descriptions, identify various forms of mental illness and express opinions on what mentally ill people need and how they should be treated. It is concluded that mental health educational interventions in schools can be effective in changing adolescents' perceptions towards mental illness.

Ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patients' knowledge with internet-based education.

BACKGROUND: There is a growing need for patient education and an evaluation of its outcomes. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patients' knowledge with Internet-based education and face-to-face education with a nurse. The following hypothesis was proposed: Internet-based patient education (experiment) is as effective as face-to-face education with a nurse (control) in increasing patients' level of knowledge and sufficiency of knowledge. In addition, the correlations of demographic variables were tested. METHODS: The patients were randomized to either an experiment group (n = 72) or a control group (n = 75). Empirical data were collected with two instruments. RESULTS: Patients in both groups showed improvement in their knowledge during their care. Patients in the experiment group improved their knowledge level significantly more in total than those patients in the control group. There were no differences in patients' sufficiency of knowledge between the groups. Knowledge was correlated especially with patients' age, gender and earlier ambulatory surgeries. CONCLUSIONS: As a conclusion, positive results concerning patients' knowledge could be achieved with the Internet-based education. The Internet is a viable method in ambulatory care.

[Italian validation of the Patient Satisfaction Scale]. / Misurare la soddisfazione del paziente: validazione della versione italiana della Patient Satisfaction Scale.

Patient's satisfaction is a major outcome of the health care services and it is mainly determined by patients' perception of the nursing care received. Many instruments measuring patients' satisfaction are described in the literature. In this study the validation of the Patient Satisfaction Scale in the Italian context is documented. Content validity of the scale has been reached with forward-backward translation, achieving semantic equivalence with the original scale. The scale has been completed by 220 (response rate 91%) surgical patients during their hospitalization and has showed a good response variability and a high reliability (Cronbach alpha = 0.93). The Italian version of the PSS is considered valid and reliable; moreover the high response rate obtained indicates a good level of acceptability of the scale in clinical settings.

Educational interventions in secondary education aiming to affect pupils' attitudes towards mental illness: a review of the literature.

Dealing with persons who have mental health problems is an issue that many people are likely to face with, whether they are health professionals or not. Positive attitudes towards people with mental illness play a major factor in their quality of life and social inclusion. Since adolescents will become active adult members of their communities in the near future, this paper reviews educational interventions in secondary education and how they aim to affect adolescent attitudes towards mental illness. Twelve studies conducted on the relevant issue have been identified. The results indicate a positive impact on attitudes towards mental illness and improvements in the knowledge of mental health and illness among secondary school pupils. However, the limited number of studies highlights the need for further research.

Individualised care and the professional practice environment: nurses' perceptions.

AIM: To describe individualised care and the professional practice environment from nurses' point of view and to explore the associations between them. BACKGROUND: There is an increasing emphasis on individualised nursing care within the literature and the health-care context. Preliminary evidence suggests that the implementation of individualised care is associated with the practice style of care, work organization and the practice environment. METHODS: An exploratory correlational survey was used. Data were collected using the Individualised Care Scale and Revised Professional Practice Environment instruments from nurses and nurse managers (n=207, response rate 59%) working in in-patient wards of three acute hospitals' 13 different units in Finland in 2008. Data were analysed based on descriptive statistics and Spearman's rho correlations. FINDINGS: Nurses perceived that they generally support patient individuality and that the care they provided was individualised. Nurses' perceptions about the support of individuality and views on individuality of care provided were associated with handling conflict, work motivation, control over practice, leadership and autonomy, relationships with physicians and cultural sensitivity. DISCUSSION: The findings support the perception that individualised care and the professional practice environment are associated. There is a need for further studies to examine these associations more closely. Manipulating aspects of the environment may possibly be used to increase the ability of the nurses to provide individualised care. Patient perspectives should be included in future studies. Because of the national data, the results are indicative only. CONCLUSIONS: The recognition of the associations between individualised care and professional practice environment elements may help to develop individualised clinical nursing care.

Dental patient education: a survey from the perspective of dental hygienists.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe the current patient education practices of dental hygienists by exploring their views concerning their skills and knowledge related to patient education and by determining the implementation of patient education in their work, with regard to both method and content. METHODS: The target group consisted of 416 dental hygienists (n = 222, 53%) The research strategy used was a survey. The material was gathered using questionnaire. RESULTS: According to the dental hygienists, their skills and knowledge about patient education were good. However, the implementation of education was not in line with these assessments. The content of the education given focused mostly on the functional dimension. Little use was made of various educational methods, and the dental hygienists felt that they were not in good enough command of the methods. The patient's expectations and learning were not assessed systematically. The education provided and the assessment of the need for education often focused on the professional him/herself and the standpoint of the patient empowerment was disregarded. CONCLUSIONS: These results lay the foundation for additional research aimed at developing the patient education given by these professionals and making it support the empowerment of each patient.

Nursing students and teaching of codes of ethics: an empirical research study.

AIM: To explore graduating nursing students' perception of nurse educators' teaching of codes of ethics in polytechnics providing basic nursing education in Finland. BACKGROUND: Codes of ethics are regarded as an essential content in most nursing ethics curricula. However, little is known about how their teaching is implemented. METHODS: Descriptive, cross-sectional design was used in this study. A total of 214 nursing students responded to a structured questionnaire with one open-ended question. The data was analysed statistically by SPSS and content analysis. FINDINGS: Students perceived teaching of the codes as fairly extensive. The emphasis was on the nurse-patient relationship. Less attention was paid to nursing in wider social contexts. Educators' use of teaching and evaluation methods was narrow. Students whose teaching had been integrated into clinical training perceived that teaching had been more extensive. However, students did not perceive integration to clinical training as a much used teaching format. Students assessed their own knowledge and ability to apply the codes as mediocre. Those educators, whose knowledge about the codes students had assessed as adequate, were also perceived to teach the codes more extensively. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of the responding students' positive description of the teaching, the findings should be interpreted with caution, due to the students' limited interest to respond. In teaching ethics, particular attention should be paid to more versatile use of teaching and evaluation methods, organization of integrated teaching, educators' competence in ethics, and student outcomes so that the importance of ethics would come across to all nursing students.

Quality of care experienced by Finnish cancer patients during radiotherapy.

The purpose of this study is to describe patients' experiences of the quality of care received at a radiotherapy centre. The data were collected using the Good Nursing Care Scale For Patients (GNCS/P), which was modified for this study. Structured questionnaires were handed out in March-May 2004 to 150 adult curative cancer patients attending outpatient radiotherapy at a university hospital in Finland. A total of 135 completed questionnaires were returned. The patients were generally satisfied with the quality of care they received. Among the four quality categories, the highest ratings were given to staff characteristics, and the lowest to the environment. Younger patients, employed patients and those with a higher level of education gave the lowest quality ratings. Improvements are needed primarily in the counselling and education of patients and their relatives. The results of this study provide valuable clues for improving the quality of care in radiotherapy based on patients' expectations.

Explaining young registered Finnish nurses' intention to leave the profession: a questionnaire survey.

BACKGROUND: Regardless of the current global nursing shortage, many nurses are planning to leave their profession. According to previous research, young nurses in particular are the most eager to leave-there is, however, no research available as to why this is. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this survey study was to discover what proportion of young nurses intends to leave the profession in Finland and what the reasons behind this are. DESIGN: Quantitative, survey study. SETTINGS: Six hospital districts in Finland. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 147 Registered Nurses, under the age of 30, working mainly in hospitals. METHOD: Data was collected as part of the NEXT (Nurses Early Exit)--Study. A structured postal questionnaire, BQ-12, was used to collect the data in autumn 2003. Quantitative data were analysed using chi(2), the Fisher exact-test and Mann-Whitney U-test, and qualitative data were analysed using quasi-statistics. RESULTS: During the course of the past year, 26% of young nurses have often thought of giving up nursing. This was associated with personal burnout, poor opportunities for development, lack of affective professional commitment, low job satisfaction, work-family conflicts and higher quantitative work demands. In open-ended question, nurses stated that the main reasons for them considering leaving the profession included dissatisfaction with salary, the demands of nursing work, the inconvenience of shift work/working hours and uncertain work status. CONCLUSIONS: Findings illustrate that there were several factors influencing the young nurses' intentions. By identifying the factors responsible, it could be possible to retain young nurses in the field.

Privacy and occupational health services.

Privacy is a key ethical principle in occupational health services. Its importance is emphasised in several laws, in ethical codes of conduct as well as in the literature, yet there is only very limited empirical research on privacy in the occupational health context. Conceptual questions on privacy in the occupational health context are discussed. The baseline assumption is that, in this context, privacy cannot be approached and examined only from the employee's (an individual) vantage point but the employer's (a group) point of view must also be taken into account, and that the concept has several dimensions (physical, social, informational and psychological). Even though privacy is a basic human need, there is no universally accepted definition of the concept and no consensus on whether an organisation can have privacy in the same way as people do. Many of the challenges surrounding privacy in the context of occupational health seem to be associated with the dual loyalties of occupational health professionals towards the employee and employer and with their simultaneous duties of disseminating and protecting information (informational privacy). Privacy is thus not an absolute value, but more research is needed to understand its multidimensional nature in the context of occupational health.

Nurses' ethical perceptions about coercion.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this study was to describe Finnish psychiatric nurses' ethical perceptions about coercive measures in acute psychiatric setting. METHODS: The data were collected with a questionnaire developed for this study. The sample included 170 Finnish psychiatric nurses on acute wards in five psychiatric hospitals. The data were analysed using frequency and percentage distributions, mean and standard deviations. The internal consistency of the instrument was explored with Cronbach's alpha. The association between the background variables and the sum score of the items of the questionnaire was tested with Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The open-ended question was analysed with content analysis. RESULTS: Some psychiatric nurses perceived coercive measures as ethically problematic. In particular, the implementation of forced medication (18%), four-point restraints (16%) and patient seclusion (11%) were perceived as ethically problematic. Female nurses and nurses who worked on closed wards perceived the measures to be more problematic than male nurses and nurses who did not work on closed wards. CONCLUSION: In Finland, special attention has been paid to ethical questions related to the care of psychiatric patients and to the enhancement of patients' rights, yet the majority of the nurses participating in the survey did not perceive coercive measures as ethically problematic. More research on this issue as well as further education of the personnel and more extensive teaching of ethics in nursing schools are needed to support the ability of the psychiatric personnel to identify ethically problematic situations. In addition, it is important to consider new measures for generating genuine moral reflection among the personnel on the usage of coercive measures as well as on their effectiveness and legitimacy in the psychiatric care.

Patients' autonomy in surgical care: a comparison of nurses' perceptions in five European countries.

BACKGROUND: This report forms part of the results of an international comparative study funded by the European Commission (1998-2001). AIM: To describe and compare the maintenance of patients' autonomy on surgical wards, from the point of view of nursing staff, in five European countries (Finland, Spain, Greece, Germany and Scotland). Autonomy is defined in terms of information received and decision making by patients. METHOD: The data were collected using a questionnaire specifically designed for use in this study. Responses (response rate 66%) were obtained from 1280 nurses working on surgical wards. Data analysis was based on descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with posthoc Tukey's HSD test and logistic regression. RESULTS: There were clear between-country differences in nurses' perceptions, especially on a north-south axis (Finland and Scotland vs. Greece and Spain), regarding the extent to which the autonomy of surgical patients is supported by nursing staff. Training and ethics education, in particular, were associated with nurses' perceptions of the maintenance of patient autonomy in Finland and Greece. CONCLUSION: Further research is needed to establish whether the results obtained are caused by differences in cultures, nursing practices or roles of health-care personnel or patients in different European countries.

Autonomy, privacy and informed consent 4: surgical perspective.

This is the fourth article in a four-part series that considers the issues of patient autonomy, privacy and informed consent. The article discusses these issues in the context of surgical patients and their nurses. There is an abundance of references to issues of autonomy and informed consent within the healthcare literature, although there are few empirical studies investigating these issues within practice. The issue of privacy has been somewhat less explored than that of autonomy or consent, particularly in the UK literature. This article reports the findings of a Scottish study that formed part of a multisite comparative study funded by the European Commission. A convenience sample of surgical patients (n = 282) and their nurses (n = 260) participated in the study. Data were collected by means of a self-completion questionnaire for both patients and nursing staff. Results indicated that there are significant differences in patient and staff perceptions on issues of patient autonomy, privacy and informed consent. However, the most marked difference in perceptions of patients and staff were found on the information-giving element of the autonomy subscale. Implications for nursing practice, education and research are highlighted.