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Aim. To describe the findings from a qualitative study exploring acute care nurses' experiences with patient falls. Background. Patient falls continue to be a problem in acute care settings for nurses at the point of care. Despite the growing body of knowledge related to risk factors and interventions for fall prevention, minimal attention has been given to nurses' perspectives of patient falls. Design. A qualitative descriptive design was used. Method. Focus group discussions were conducted with nurses working on a cross-section of inpatient acute care settings. Audio-taped sessions were transcribed and analysed thematically. Results. Nurses described their experience of falls as 'knowing the patient as safe', an ongoing affirmation that the patient was free from harm. In this focused, narrowly defined and highly specific knowing, nurses employed the key strategies of assessment, monitoring and communicating. Variable conditions influenced whether these strategies were effective in giving nurses the knowledge they needed to keep the patient safe. When strategies failed to provide nurses with knowledge of their patients as safe and patients fell, this created considerable stress for nurses and prompted them to use a range of coping strategies. Conclusion. Knowing the patient as safe has the potential to resolve the tension between patient safety and independence. The critical, often taken for granted, activities used by nurses in this knowing must be expanded to include the meaning falls have for patients and attend to factors beyond nurses control such as environmental redesign and staffing. Relevance to clinical practice. Nurses play an important role in fall prevention through knowing the patient as safe but must be supported through the use of a multi-faceted approach extending from the individual nurse to the institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this multiphasic qualitative research study was to obtain an in-depth understanding of how students experience a non-terminal summer externship program. Baccalaureate and associate degree nursing students participated in the six-week externship developed through a partnership between a regional hospital and a school of nursing in the southeastern United States. Data were collected before, during, immediately following, and six months after the externship experience using a combination of focus groups and interviews with student-preceptor dyads. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using constant comparative methodology. Findings from the study indicated that the core process characterizing the experience was 'empowered learning on the inside.' In contrast to traditional instructor-led experiences, students were positioned on the inside and acculturated to the world of nursing. As insiders, students related to others and experienced nursing in new ways. Implications of the findings for nursing education are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from part of a larger qualitative study designed to explore the concept of mobility within the context of concept development. Primary nurses and their elderly clients made up the two study samples. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using thematic content-analysis techniques. In this article, only data from the client sample are reported. Findings suggested that the elderly clients defined mobility in terms of three interrelated dimensions: physical, cognitive, and social. From client descriptions of mobility, six qualities emerged: ease and freedom of movement, independence, automaticity, purposefulness, self-environmental awareness, and continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a larger study to examine the concept of mobility from the perspectives of clients and nurses. It represents a beginning effort at clarifying, refining, and developing the concept for nursing practice as the current literature concentrates on immobility. The enquiry began with a theoretical phase during which attributes and characteristics of the concept were elicited. This was followed by a fieldwork phase to determine whether there was congruency between the theoretical formulations of the concept and empirical data. Primary nurses and their clients were interviewed and data were analyzed using content analysis. In this article, only data obtained from the nurse population are reported. Themes derived from the nurses' interviews are described and compared with the results of the theoretical phase. Findings revealed that there was a measure of support for the concept as defined in the theoretical phase but pointed to the need for more empirical work with different client populations across settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nursing has been concerned primarily with the visible aspects of health promotion and has shown little regard for what is invisible. Yet the hidden ideology powerfully shapes current approaches to health promotion. This paper examines and makes visible the ideology of individual responsibility which is embedded in individualistic health promotion, the primary orientation to health promotion. Ways in which this ideology is perpetuated within nursing curricula are described. Concrete strategies are proposed that may be considered by nurse educators as they seek to prepare students in health promotion, with particular emphasis on strategies that highlight its ideological underpinnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors present their analysis of the concept of mobility as a starting point for the development of relevant theory. Multiple uses of the concept are considered and provisional criteria identified. Case examples, together with antecedents and consequences, of the concept are presented. Finally, research questions that would form the basis of fieldwork have been generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing and widespread use of central line catheterization in clinical practice. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness and concern about the escalating rate of infection related to central lines, especially in those patients receiving total parenteral nutrition. This paper reviews selected studies which have identified factors contributing to central line infection. Factors relating to all areas of catheter management, including insertion, maintenance and removal have been implicated in central line infections. Nurses who are involved to varying degrees in all phases of central line management, play an important role in infection control. An understanding of infection-related factors as the first step needed to effect changes in procedures and protocols in the care of patients with central lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]