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Purpose: Nurses working in forensic psychiatry often encounter offenders who have a severe mental illness, which may cause ethical challenges and influence nurses' daily work. This study was conducted to illuminate the meaning of nurses' lived experiences of encounters with patients with mental illnesses in forensic inpatient care. Methods: This qualitative study employed narrative interviews with 13 nurses. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim and analysed following a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Results: Four key themes were revealed: "Being frustrated" (subthemes included "Fighting resignation" and "Being disappointed"), "Protecting oneself" (subthemes included "To shy away," "Being on your guard," and "Being disclosed"), "Being open-minded" (subthemes included "Being confirmed," "Developing trust," and "Developing compassion"), and "Striving for control" (subthemes included "Sensing mutual vulnerability" and "Regulating oneself"). Further, working in forensic psychiatry challenged nurses' identity as healthcare professionals because of being in a stressful context. Conclusions: Dealing with aggressive patients with severe mental illnesses threatens nurses' professional identity. Nurses must attempt to empathize with patients' experiences and respond accordingly. Utilizing strategies rooted in compassion such as self-reflection, emotional regulation, and distancing themselves when necessary may enable nurses to more effectively respond to patients' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Care encounters at general wards have many reasons, and the complexity differs. Some arriving at the ward are relatives of discharged intensive care unit patients', who are usually more fragile than others due to what had happened to them. Research indicates that care encounters leave relatives dissatisfied. There is a lack of studies describing how relatives of adult patients experience the transfer from the intensive care unit. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe relatives' experiences of care encounters with nurses during their loved ones' stay in the general ward after being discharged from the intensive care unit. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design with an inductive approach was used. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with relatives [n = 14) of patients from different hospitals in Sweden. Data were analysed using content analysis. Results: Relatives expressed feeling a huge responsibility for ensuring the quality of care for their loved ones. It was essential to encounter available, committed, and compassionate nurses in the general ward after being transferred from the intensive care unit. The theme 'longing for trust and struggling to be involved in their loved one's care' was illustrated in the two subthemes of 'wanting to be seen as an important piece of the puzzle' and 'being vigilant and worrying about the quality of care'. Conclusion: The relatives of patients experience their needs as unfulfilled in care encounters with nurses at the general ward after transfer from ICU. In order to meet the needs of relatives, nurses require well-developed non-technical skills to establish a compassionate interaction founded on trust and respect for the individual. Future research should investigate how relatives' needs can be met in practice. New nursing innovations are necessary to structure encounters with patients and relatives transitioning from the intensive care unit. [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]

Nursing critically ill patients includes planning and performing safe discharges from Intensive Care Units (ICU) to the general wards. The aim of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of the main concern in the ICU transitional process—the care before, during, and after the transfer of ICU patients. Interviews were conducted with 35 Swedish nurses and analysed according to grounded theory. The main concern was the nurses' “struggling with a gap.” The “gap” was caused by differences in the altered level of care and contributed to difficulties for nurses encountering an overlap during the transitional care. The categories: sheltering, seeking organizational intertwining and striving for control are related to the core category and were used to generate a theory. The nurses sought improved collaboration, and employed patient-centred routines. They wanted access to necessary tools; they relayed or questioned their own competence and sought assurance of the patients' ability to be transferred. If the nurses felt a loss of control, lack of intertwining and lack of collaboration, they sheltered their patients and themselves. Intertwining was more difficult to perform, but actually even more important to do. With knowledge about ICU transitional care, collaboration, routines, and with an organization that provides an educational environment, the process could be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: International and national guidelines state that palliative care should be offered to everyone who needs it. To promote the implementation of palliative care in nursing homes, a partnership collaboration was initiated with the goal of implementing high quality palliative care. The partnership consisted of three partner groups: a project group from a non-profit organisation providing health care, managers at the nursing homes and an academic partner. The aim was to explore the social processes within academic-community partnership in a collaboration project. Methods: Digital focus group discussions were conducted with 16 participants, representing all three partner groups. One individual digital interview was also carried out. A constructivist perspective of a grounded theory approach was used for data analysis. Results: The core category, partnership positioning, covers the social processes of the academic-community partnership in a collaboration project to implement and evaluate health-promoting interventions in clinical health care. The core category was found to have four categories: Pre-positioning, Co-positioning, Re-positioning and GoOn-positioning. The process of partnership positioning is conceptualised in a model. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a new partnership in an implementation project needs holistic, systemic thinking. To enhance implementation in a collaborative project involving different professionals and actors a plan is required to facilitate positioning activities. The process, the roles and the components need to be clearly defined and documented, and the management of a system requires knowledge of the interrelationships between all the components within the system. The development of a conceptual model of Partnership Positioning contributes to knowledge concerning the social dynamic processes which can be applied to support future academic-community collaboration and/or implementation projects. Trial registration: Not applicable. The present study has not been considered as a clinical trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]