Lived Experiences of Adolescents Living With Primary Chronic Pain.

BACKGROUND: Primary chronic pain (PCP), a relatively new classification, characterizes pain that is not a secondary response to an underlying primary condition such as trauma or cancer. This study explored the lived experience of adolescents with a diagnosis of PCP. METHOD: A qualitative methodology, Interpretative Description (ID), was used to guide our study. ID uses a constructivist approach and allows for clinician experience to guide a theoretical scaffold of inquiry, which can be refined as the data collection progresses. We interviewed fifteen adolescents (n = 15) living with PCP. RESULTS: All participants in this sample reported struggling with diagnostic uncertainty, depression, and anxiety. Adding to their distress was the fact that our participants perceived that health care professionals did not believe them when they described their pain and its intensity. CONCLUSIONS: While significant research is being conducted on PCP, participants believe there is a lack of knowledge about PCP as a diagnosis and thus there are limited resources and a lack of empathy and understanding for these adolescents.

The Social Determinants of Nursing Retention in a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit.

Pediatric hematology/oncology units (PHOUs) are highly paced, stressful environments and can be difficult areas to work. Thus, these units can present issues when it comes to both recruiting and retaining health care professionals (HCPs). There is scant research addressing how the environment of a PHOU contribute to a HCP's desire to stay or leave this environment. To conduct this project, a critical ethnographic approach was used. The researcher conducted semistructured interviews ( n = 29), which included nurses ( n = 21), physicians ( n = 4), and allied health care staff ( n = 4). This sample represented approximately one third of staff in each category. Participants identified that their ability to develop long-term relationships with children and families as a significant source of satisfaction. Belonging to the oncology team was seen as extraordinarily important to all the participants. The majority of the participants also felt that working in this ever-evolving dynamic medical field afforded them with ongoing learning opportunities. The main frustration described by participants pertained to administrative involvement in the everyday workings of the PHOU, potentially leading to attrition. It is important to note that there was also diversity among and between the categories of HCPs when describing the work environment and the issues that most influence them. While similarities among participants were found between satisfaction and dissatisfaction, significant differences between them led us to believe it would be unreasonable to attempt to compare the three groups here. Thus, in this article the author focused primarily on nursing while noting related observations from physicians and allied health professions.

A critical ethnographic look at paediatric intensive care nurses and the determinants of nurses' job satisfaction.

The aim of this study is to examine key features within the cultural context in a Canadian Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) environment as experienced by nurses and to identify what these influences are and how they shape nurses' intentions to remain at critically ill children's bedsides for the duration of their careers. This is a qualitative study which follows a critical ethnographic approach. Over 20 hours of observation and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted. Approximately one third of the nursing population at the research site PICU were interviewed (N=31). Participants describe a complex process of becoming an expert PICU nurse that involved several stages. By the time participants became experts in this PICU they believed they had significantly narrowed the power imbalance that exists between nursing and medicine. This study illuminates the role both formal and informal education plays in breaking the power barrier for nurses in the PICU. This level of expertise and mutual respect between professions aids in retaining nurses in the PICU. The lack of autonomy and/or respect shown to nurses by administrators appears to be one of the major stressors in nurses' working lives and can lead to attrition from the PICU. Family Centred Care (FCC) is practiced in paediatrics and certainly accentuated in the PICU as there is usually only one patient assigned per nurse, who thus afforded the time to provide comprehensive care to both the child and the family. This is considered one of the satisfiers for nurses in the PICU and tends to encourage retention of nurses in the PICU. However, FCC was found to be an inadequate term to truly encompass the type of holistic care provided by nurses in the PICU.