Personality of the caregiver influences the use of strategies to deal with the behavior of persons with dementia.

Personality of family caregiver is an important factor influencing the caregiver's burden, depression and distress. We now hypothesized that the personality is associated with specific strategies used by family caregivers to deal with the behavioral and psychological symptoms of demented relatives (BPSD). Participants were 98 consecutive persons with dementia and their family caregivers. Assessments included: Personality (NEO-FFI), Burden (ZBI), Depression (CES-D), Cognitive Function (MMSE), BPSD (NPI), Distress (NPI-D), and an open question to identify the strategies used by caregivers when faced with BPSD. Caregivers used different strategies to cope with their relatives' behavior: avoiding conflict; confronting; reassuring; orienting; responding coercively; distracting; colluding; medicating and restricting the movements. Extraversion was the only dimension of caregiver's personality that determined the use of caregiver strategies to deal with BPSD. Extroverted caregivers used the "confronting" strategy less often. Caregiver's personality should be taken into account when designing adapted intervention programs.

A review of nursing workforce policies in five European countries: Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and United Kingdom*/England.

AIM: Review nursing workforce policies in five European countries: Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and the United Kingdom*. BACKGROUND: Imbalances in registered nurse (RN) supply and demand is a global, significant and recurring issue that impacts on healthcare systems, organizations, staff and patients. METHOD: Policy Review using resources located by a systematic search of relevant healthcare databases and policies in Danish, English, Finnish and Portuguese over the time period 2003-2007. Content analysis was used to identify themes and compare policies. RESULTS: Common nursing workforce policy themes were identified across the five countries: (1) improving retention through effective human resource management, improving the practice environment and nurses' working lives and (2) improving recruitment through attracting more new recruits and RNs back to practice, and international recruitment. The present study also identified methodological issues relating to data quality and quantity. Lack of an agreed definition and standardized measures of nursing need and shortage makes comparison and evaluation of policy effectiveness and impact difficult. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Healthcare systems and organizations need to identify and implement effective policies that promote the retention of RNs in the workforce, or risk threats to healthcare system sustainability, as well as patient care quality and safety.

Que fazem os enfermeiros para promover a saúde da populaçäo? Análise preliminar / What do nurses do to promote the health of the population? - preliminary analysis

O artigo divulga uma investigaçäo em curso, realizada por uma equipe constituída por docentes e enfermeiros prestadores de cuidados. Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo com uma componente qualitativa, em que se pretende evidenciar as açöes e orientaçöes para o cuidar de enfermeiros nos contactos individuais com utilizadores de Centros de Saúde e os fatores que podem influenciar as suas práticas...