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Purpose: Although previous research indicates that care transitions differ between rural and urban areas, the knowledge of challenges related to care transitions in rural areas appears limited. This study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of what registered nurses' perceive as the main concerns in care transitions from hospital care to home healthcare in rural areas, and how they handle these during the care transition process. Methods: A Constructivist Grounded Theory method based on individual interviews with 21 registered nurses. Results: The main concern in the transition process was "Care coordination in a complex context". The complexity stemmed from several environmental and organizational factors, creating a messy and fragmented context for registered nurses to navigate. The core category "Actively communicating to reduce patient safety risks" was explained by the three categories-- "Collaborating on expected care needs", "Anticipating obstacles" and "Timing the departure". Conclusions: The study shows a very complex and stressed process that includes several organizations and actors. Reducing risks during the transition process can be facilitated by clear guidelines, tools for communication across organizations and sufficient staffing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Registered nurses are critical for the delivery of high-quality healthcare during care transitions from hospital to home. Older co-morbid patients are most vulnerable during these transitions. A growing population of older adults with a higher prevalence of diseases implies increased demands on healthcare and its quality, which is affected by the environment where healthcare is provided. One can draw inferences on the quality of care when classified into structure, process, and outcome. This study explored registered nurses' perspectives on structural conditions that promote or hinder good quality care during transitions from hospital to home healthcare in rural areas. Methods: We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with 21 registered nurses experienced in care transitions from hospital to home healthcare in a rural area of Sweden. We based the theoretically driven analysis on Donabedian's definition of structures regarding the quality of care. Results: The structural conditions were represented by three themes; (I) "Distances and inaccessibility" explains physical matters such as geographical (in)accessibility, bed (un)availability and electronic aids. (II) "Competence of the actors" explains continuity, knowledge and collaboration among the individuals involved. (III) "Levels of organizational governance" explains laws, expectations, values, and agreements regarding care transitions. All themes involved promoting and hindering factors, mutually influencing aspects of the others. Conclusions: Care actors, educators, managers, and decision-makers need to understand how structures in the physical, social and symbolic environment interactively affect the quality of care during care transitions since understanding this is a prerequisite for improvements. These aspects must be considered to optimize conditions for high-quality care transitions from hospital to rural home healthcare and implemented continuously to improve transitions within the respective organization and inter-organizationally. According to this study, these aspects are critical in a rural context due to structural care quality influencers such as geographical challenges, difficulties in finding competent staff members, development of technical devices, and access to the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to illuminate the essential meanings of carers' lived experience of regulating themselves when caring for patients with mental illnesses in forensic inpatient care. Qualitative analysis was used to analyse data from narrative interviews with open-ended questions conducted with nine carers, which were analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Findings revealed three themes, "preserving oneself as a carer," "building an alliance with the patient" and "maintaining stability in the community." Carers not only regulated emotions related to patients but also the ward to facilitate a caring climate. For carers, encounters with patients meant facing expressions of suffering that evoked unwanted emotions. Regulating one's emotions also meant being emotionally touched and facing one's vulnerability. Regulating oneself was a strategy used by carers to get closer to the patient and establishing a trusting relationship. Regulating oneself meant becoming aware of one's shortcomings, not projecting them onto others, which may impair establishing relationships with patients and fulfilling the aim and caring task of forensic psychiatry. This study stresses the importance of carers being guided to manage their conflicting emotions and vulnerabilities and finding courage and an approach that allows a permissive climate of self-reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to illuminate the meaning of nurses' lived experiences of encounters with adult patients with anorexia nervosa in psychiatric inpatient care. A qualitative phenomenological hermeneutical design was used. Personal interviews with a narrative approach were conducted with 11 nurses with experience of encountering patients with anorexia nervosa in psychiatric inpatient care. Three key themes were revealed: Being overwhelmed by emotions consisting of three subthemes: Bearing feelings of incomprehension, Navigating emotions, and Being disappointed and frustrated; Seeking strength to cope consisting of three subthemes: Relying on colleagues and routines, Feeling hope and motivation, and Building inner security; and Trying to build relations consisting of two subthemes: Getting closer to the patient and Relating to relatives. Our findings illuminate the "emotional roller-coaster" which nurses are embedded in during their daily work experiences. Being able to balance one's professional role, seeing the person behind the patient, and the illness is important in all nurse-patient encounters. An examination of nurses' lived experiences can contribute new and important knowledge, an in-depth understanding of the nurses' work situation, and can help identify any need for increased knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]