BACKGROUND: The European Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer and the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists state that there is a need for EU agreed guidelines on breast care nursing and training. Therefore the European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS) commissioned the development of a post-basic curriculum for breast cancer nursing. ...

Free flap monitoring typically requires specialized nursing that can increase medical costs. This study uses near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) tissue oximetry to monitor free tissue breast reconstruction. We hypothesize this practice will reduce medical costs by eliminating the need for specialized nursing. From August 2006 to January 2010, women undergoing unilateral ...

george v. & haag-heitman b. (2011) Journal of Nursing Management19, 254-259 Nursing peer review: the manager's role Aim  This article explains the unique role of nurse managers in facilitating nursing peer review and clarifies the issues of ownership about peer review processes and performance evaluations. Background  The authors' review of ...

To examine the relationship of low back pain prevalence and treatment to personal and work-related characteristics among intensive care unit nurses. Back pain is the most common work-related health problem among nurses. A cross-sectional study including a survey conducted in 2007. The study sample included 1345 nurses in 65 intensive ...

Life-threatening illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other disorders are prevalent in the developing world, including Kenya. The aim of this project was to assist in the development of palliative care throughout Kenya by enhancing the knowledge and skill of faculty members in palliative care so they could integrate ...

AJN asked army nurse Christopher A. Vanfosson to file periodic reports on his and his team's work in Afghanistan. In the coming months, he'll keep readers up to date on their experiences and how it feels to provide care on a battlefield.

This paper is a report of an exploration of nurses' perceptions of the quality of satellite dialysis care and how aspects of power that influenced quality nursing care. In Australia, the majority of people living with established kidney failure undertake haemodialysis in nurse-run satellite dialysis units. Haemodialysis nurses provide the ...

Scand J Caring Sci; 2011; 25; 350-356 Improvement in the nursing care quality in general surgery wards: Iranian nurses' perceptions Improving care quality is one of the duties of almost all health service providers. Although it is of much significance to identify the factors influencing nursing care quality in specific ...

Key indicators can keep trustees up to date on their organization's quality of nursing care.

Spirituality is a highly contested concept. Within the nursing literature, there are a huge range and diversity of definitions, some of which appear coherent whereas others seem quite disparate and unconnected. This vagueness within the nursing literature has led some to suggest that spirituality is so diverse as to be ...

The aim of this phenomenological study was to explore the emotions experienced by children's nurses when caring for children with burns, in addition to ascertaining how the nurses dealt with these emotions. The nature of nursing practice is such that it inevitably generates some form of emotional response in nurses. ...

To investigate the lived experiences of neonatal nurses, that is, what it is like to be a neonatal nurse after developmental care is introduced in the unit. The study was designed as a qualitative interview study with a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach. Participants were seven neonatal nurses working in an 18-bed level ...

Despite growing interest in spiritual matters throughout society, definitions and descriptions of spirituality seem incomplete or otherwise unsatisfactory. In this article, the authors consider the possibility that such incompleteness is perhaps necessary and welcomed in addressing spirituality. In particular, they investigate the challenges of using metaphor and metonymic approaches to ...

To describe individualised care and the professional practice environment from nurses' point of view and to explore the associations between them. 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 ...

This study explored the experiences of NICU nurses in caring for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). A qualitative research approach was used with open-ended questions employing computer-assisted personal interviews. Fourteen NICU nurses employed in a regional hospital provided responses. The nurses reflected a personal struggle between a desire to ...

The paper discusses the negative attitudes of some nursing assistants in Slovenia towards higher nursing education and academic (theoretical and research based) knowledge. The topic is discussed in the context of traditional hierarchical and patriarchal relations in the health-care sector, professionalization of nursing and the evidence-based debate in nursing. A ...

This study describes allonursing (females nursing offspring that are not their own) in captive belugas (Delphinapterus leucas). In addition to the calf's mother, two females that were not pregnant or nursing at the time of the calf's birth spontaneously lactated and nursed the male calf intermittently throughout 34 months of ...

Demanding conditions in acute psychiatric wards inhibit provision of safe, therapeutic care and leave nurses torn between humanistic ideals and the harsh reality of their daily work. The aim of this study was to describe nurses' caring approaches within this context. Data were collected from interviews with nurses working in ...

The purpose of this study was to determine nurses' views on the organizational supports needed for the delivery of culturally competent care. The research design was qualitative, with a case study approach. Data collection included face-to-face interviews with 23 registered nurses, document analysis, and reports of critical incidents. The findings ...

This study unit as part of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme aimed at reviving the spiritual dimension in nursing care. This paper discusses the perceived impact of the study unit Spiritual Coping in Illness and Care on qualified nurses. The paucity of literature demonstrates some benefits perceived by the ...

Care delivery models are an integral component for delivering patient care. Although models may be abstract, nursing care delivery models need to be evolving and reality-based, as they serve to organize the allocation of nursing resources. How nursing resources are allocated is associated with patient and professional RN satisfaction, RN ...

Although critical care nurses are expected to focus on providing life-sustaining measures, many intensive care patients actually receive end-of-life care. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to measure nursing attitudes and behaviors regarding end-of-life care. Phase 1 was focused on item development from a content analysis ...

OBJECTIVE: Measure RNs' and nursing assistants' reports of frequency and reasons for missed nursing care and identify factors related to successful delegation. BACKGROUND: Routine nursing tasks were identified as the most commonly occurring omissions. Reasons for omissions included poor utilization of staff resources, time required for the nursing interventions, poor ...

Nurses have the opportunity to companion patients on their spiritual journey during illness. The author, a nurse and spiritual director, relays the use of Ignatian Contemplation to help a friend journeying through the experience of renal carcinoma.

This paper is a report of a study of the meaning of quality nursing care for practising nurses. Healthcare quality continues to be a subject of intense criticism and debate. Although quality nursing care is vital to patient outcomes and safety, meaningful improvements have been disturbingly slow. Analysis of quality ...

Although nurses of the past and present recognize the importance of spiritual care to health and healing, in practice and education, spiritual care dwells on the periphery of the profession. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the reasons behind this contradiction. Using the phenomenological ...

AIM: To identify the factors that impact the resilience of registered aged care nurses, that is their capacity to adapt to the physical, mental and emotional demands of working in aged care facilities. METHOD: This study explored the lived experience of nine registered nurses working in residential aged care facilities ...

In 2008, the Ontario Long Term Care Association was awarded funding from HealthForceOntario to assist with its nursing recruitment strategy based on research it had initiated in 2007. The research goal was to understand the career motivations and perceptions of students enrolled in registered nursing (RN) and registered practical nursing ...

This study tested whether two 1-day retreats focused on spiritual self-care would positively change nurse participants' spirituality. A total of 199 critical care nurses were accepted into this study; 87 were randomized to receive the retreat intervention. All 199 nurses were tested preretreat, 1 month and 6 months postretreat. Retreat ...

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of summaries of nursing-care-related systematic reviews from the Cochrane Nursing Care Field.

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore how Thai nurses in intensive care units of a university hospital in Bangkok provided spiritual care to their patients. BACKGROUND: The function of nursing is to promote health, prevent illness, restore health and alleviate suffering. An holistic approach to this promotion ...

This study was made by a qualitative approach based on symbolic interactionism and grounded theory. The subject was defined as what mutilation means for nurses who take care of women submitted to gynaecological surgery. The aim was to identify the interaction relationship of nurses as female with the phenomenon of ...

The Australian government and aged care industry uphold the standard of care for persons who require high care and reside in residential aged care facilities. The residential aged care system is extremely complex and through research conducted at the micro level it is argued that the macro level of policy ...

Few research studies have focused on nurses' working conditions for caring provided at night, and these studies have mainly described nurses' work in hospital settings, not in a municipal, social-care context. In Swedish municipal care, nurses have responsibility for hundreds of older people in need of care. This working condition ...

AIM: This paper is a report of a study of nurses' perceptions of individualized care, the factors associated with these perceptions, and nurses' perceptions of the provision of individualized care in different types of healthcare organization. BACKGROUND: Although individualized care has been an internationally-challenging and long-standing research topic in nursing, ...

To examine issues related to the working life of registered nurses in residential care for older people in New Zealand, 48 registered nurses completed surveys (n = 28) or participated in discussions (n = 26) regarding their work roles, continuing education and interactions with specialist nurse services when providing care ...

The purpose of this study was to identify key concepts in dementia care from the perspective of registered nurses working in the Canadian north. Interviews were conducted with RNs employed in small, remote northern communities about their experiences with dementia assessment and caregiving and their perceptions about dementia care resources. ...

Emotional Intelligence, recognizing and handling ones' own and others' emotions is beginning to figure in nursing literature, with potential to enhance care, teamwork and wellbeing. District nursing is laden with complex and emotional issues yet little research investigates the value of emotional intelligence in district nursing specifically. This qualitative study ...

OVERVIEW: The evolution of HIV infection into a chronic disease has implications across all clinical care settings. Every nurse should be knowledgeable about the prevention, testing, treatment, and chronicity of the disease in order to provide high-quality care to people with or at risk for HIV. It's important, therefore, to ...

OBJECTIVES: Recent developments in nursing to people with mental health conditions of working age have been underpinned by the recovery approach. This paper critically reviews the idea of recovery in relationship to people with dementia and examines its applicability to dementia care nursing. DESIGN: The paper critically reviews literature relating ...

There are an estimated 5.3 million Americans with Alzheimer's disease, and as the population ages, that number is expected to reach 7.7 million by the year 2030. Older adults with Alzheimer's and other dementias are 3.1 times more likely to have a hospital stay than those without the condition. The ...

RATIONALE: Nurses' work is inextricably linked to the evaluation of the quality of care provision in health care. Within this evaluation, individualized care is a topical theme in western countries. Currently, there is no suitable instrument to measure the level of individualized care from the nurses' point of view. AIM: ...

AIM: To present evidence-based factors for the recruitment and retention of licensed nurses caring for older people and persons with dementia. BACKGROUND: The international nurse shortage crisis is intensified in the aged and dementia care sector. Strategies to address this crisis rely on qualitative, quasi-experimental, anecdotal and unsubstantiated literature. DESIGN: ...

North American society has undergone a period of sacralization where ideas of spirituality have increasingly been infused into the public domain. This sacralization is particularly evident in the nursing discourse where it is common to find claims about the nature of persons as inherently spiritual, about what a spiritually healthy ...

This exemplar, relaying an unexpected lesson in meeting the spiritual needs of an acutely ill patient, is written to encourage nurses in providing holistic care of patients. The author assessed spiritual distress and made a plan for spiritual care, but implementation and outcome were not favorable. An inductive Christian nursing ...

This study explored spirituality as an aspect of support for nurses grieving the loss of patients. Previous research has sought to understand the grief support needs of nurses; spirituality is one support nurses describe. Fifty-eight nurses responded to questions related to spirituality from a Needs Assessment Questionnaire (NAQ) designed to ...

To discover new experience-based clinical and care delivery knowledge learned in the Iraq and Afghanistan combat zones, 107 Air Force, Army, and Navy nurses were interviewed. Eight areas of experiential knowledge were identified in the new care delivery system that featured rapid transport, early trauma and surgical care, and expeditious ...

BACKGROUND: Training in palliative care is frequently requested by health care professionals. However, little is known in detail about the subject matters and the educational preferences of physicians and staff or assistant nurses in this field. METHODS: All 897 registered GPs and all 933 registered home care nurses in the ...

Using blood and blood components is a common therapeutic procedure in hospitals. Nurses have an important role in a safe blood transfusion. Therefore, it is crucial for nurses to have sufficient knowledge of situations, amount and methods of using blood components, possible side effects and necessary cares. This study investigated ...

Each year 55 000 children die in the United States, and most of these deaths occur in hospitals. The barriers and supportive behaviors in providing end-of-life care to children should be determined. To determine pediatric intensive care unit nurses' perceptions of sizes, frequencies, and magnitudes of selected obstacles and helpful ...