Search

The study is intended to enhance the social self category of integrity and the way it affects the quality of care in older patients. It is observed that respect for the patients' integrity and their social self is important.

Background:The process of giving birth to a baby who has died is a significantly traumatic experience for the mother and her family and also for health professionals. Support, or even the perceived lack of support, from professionals often influences whether or not the parents choose to see and hold their baby. Psychosocial clinical care may also affect long-term psychiatric sequelae. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of mothers following the death of a baby and their interaction with healthcare professionals.Methods:Through a web-based survey, a content analysis of this open-ended question was conducted: ‘Do you currently feel sad, hurt, or angry for something health professionals did in connection to the birth of your baby?’Results:Mothers reported feeling sadness when they perceived too little support from professionals, particularly related to bonding time with the baby. They reported feelings of disappointment when health professionals neither acknowledged nor validated their motherhood. Mothers reported anger in response to professionals they perceived to be indifferent or callous toward their loss. They also reported that they felt hurt when health professionals lacked respect and when they felt abandoned by the personnel.Conclusions:There are crucial implications for practice; it is important for women who experience a stillbirth to have their motherhood actively acknowledged and validated and to have the humble, empathic presence of their health professionals.

The norm — to protect and support the good life — serves as a guide in ethics of care. Therefore, nursing must be based, not only on theoretical and practical knowledge, but also on knowledge built on lived experiences. Having a high level of knowledges and skills makes a nurse able to give good care to elderly individuals and constitute the good role model for nursing students in their clinical education in geriatric care. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe, with a view to highlight, virtues in moral actions of eight experienced registered nurses, who all worked within geriatric care in Sweden, and whose ultimate purpose is doing good in their care of elderly individuals. Qualitative interviews together with Critical Incident Technique were used for collecting data. Grounds for understanding moral actions were the Aristotelian ethics, within which two kinds of virtues are recognised, i. e. moral — virtues of character — and intellectual virtues focused on episteme (scientific knowledge), techne (art) and phronesis (practical wisdom). Rejoice in actions is also included. The results indicate that the eight experienced — professional — nurses in many ways possess the disposition the Aristotelian virtue ethics prescribe for a moral way of acting. They are in possession of a true knowledge about episteme, techne and phronesis, which is implemeted in their care of elderly individuals. In nursing education, practising geriatric care depends on good role models. Therefore necessary conditions must be fullfilled for nurses, whose moral acting can interprete in Aristotelian termes, to benefit nursing students.