Search

Aim To explore the experiences of health visits within the school health services from the perspective of adolescents with migration experiences. Design A descriptive qualitative study. Methods Data were collected using focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews with adolescents with migration experiences aged 13–17 years old. Analysis was conducted using reflexive thematic analysis. Results The results described adolescents reading the signs in the guided interaction between them and the school nurses. Reading the signs illustrated the adolescents' continuous interpretation of the interaction with the school nurse, and their decisions on how to respond throughout the health visit. These interpretations influenced the adolescents' shifting willingness to talk about their health and how they adapted to the space of participation provided by the school nurse. The interpretation also influenced their experiences of health visits as focusing on their health without making them feel singled out. Conclusion Although individual considerations might be warranted in health visits with adolescents with migration experiences, the results indicate that similarities in intrapersonal communication in various encounters between adolescents and health professionals might be greater than any differences. Healthcare encounters with adolescents with migration experiences might thus need to be conducted with an awareness that adolescents read the signs in the guided interaction and that similarities in this interaction are greater than any differences.

A key underpinning of choice of health care provider is that patients make active and informed decisions which stimulate quality competition. By imitating the principles of a market in the steering of health care, patients thus assume the role of consumers. Few patients however neither consider alternative providers nor seek information about quality. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how patients engage in the role of being active and informed consumers in the setting of primary care, and how they argue for their choice. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with 18 respondents in a municipality in mid-Sweden. Respondents were purposefully sampled and interviews were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Findings demonstrated that patients disengaged from choice by arguing, for instance, that they were satisfied with their current provider or because they perceived no differences in quality. Overall, results were in line with previous studies performed in US and European hospital settings, indicating that patients present some similar arguments regarding disengagement from choice irrespective of level of care or geographical setting. Arguments specifically related to the primary care level were that patients found it more important to achieve continuity in the patient-doctor relationship than ‘shopping around’ for the best provider, or that they desired more profiled services to actively make a choice. In contrast to previous literature, patients refuted the ‘patient-consumer’ role by referring to, for instance, the belief that care should be of equal quality independent of what choice they made.

Background A major challenge for primary care is to set priorities and balance demands with available resources. The registered nurses in this study are practice nurses working in primary care offices, playing a large role in initial assessments. The overall objective of this research is to investigate practices of communication and decision-making during nurses’ initial assessment of patients’ health problems in primary care, examine working mechanisms in good practices and develop feasible solutions. Methods Project PINPOINT aims for a prospective multicenter study using various methods for data collection and analysis. A purposive sample of 150 patient‒nurse consultations, including 30 nurses and 150 patients, will be recruited at primary care centers in three different geographic areas of southwest Sweden. The study will report on outcomes of communication practices in relation to patient-reported expectations and experiences, communication processes and patient involvement, assessment and decision-making, related priorities and value conflicts with data from patient questionnaires, audio-recorded real-time communication, and reflective interviews with nurses. Discussion This research will contribute to the knowledge needed for the guidance of first-line decision-making processes to best meet patient and public health needs. This knowledge is necessary for the development of assessments and decisions to be better aligned to patients and to set priorities. Insights from this research can empower patients and service providers and help understand and enhance feasible person-centered communication strategies tailored to patients’ level of health literacy. More specifically, this research will contribute to knowledge that can strengthen nurses’ communication, assessments, and clinical decision-making in primary care. In the long term, this will contribute to how the competencies of practice nurses and other professionals are organized and carried out to make the bes

AimTo explore communication research in nursing by investigating the theoretical approaches, methods, content and perspectives in research on real-time registered nurse (RN)-patient communication. DesignAn integrative review of real-time communication between RNs and patients. Data SourcesEmpirical research papers were searched in PubMed, CINAHL Plus and Medline. The results from the database searches were supplemented with results from manual searches in reference lists. Review MethodsA total of 1369 articles published between January 1996 and December 2021 were screened, which resulted in the inclusion of 52 articles. ResultsThe integration of various theories, such as nursing or communication theories, is weak in most of the included studies. RN-patient communication appears to influence relationship building. Even when nurses strive to meet patients' needs, they often focus primarily on nursing routines and physical care. The topic of the communication varies depending on the situation and different communication styles are used. When a patient-centred approach is adopted, the interpersonal communication becomes quite symmetrical, with complementary roles of nurses and patients. Within a more asymmetric communication context, nurses dominate communication, choose topics and function as instructors. How the nurses communicated subsequently influenced the patients' communication styles and strategies. ConclusionCommunication is multifaceted, contains different strategies and is important for building trust and facilitating patient-centred care. The importance of RNs' communication for interaction and relationship-building seems to be well established within research, but few studies focused on patients' communication with RNs. ImpactThis integrative review gives an overview of the width and depth of observational studies on RN-patient communication research. The variety of studies indicates that this area is a less well-grounded field of research. Future research

Background: Although person-centered care is prioritized in healthcare, challenges remain before such care is integrated in everyday communication and practice. One way to strengthen person-centered care is that health professionals’ clinical reasoning (i.e., assessment and management) is pervaded by patient participation and individualized to patient needs. Interprofessional team meetings, focusing on goals and management planning, is an opportunityt o improve person-centeredness. However, there is a lack of understanding of how person-centeredness is created in the clinical reasoning of teams. This study aims to explore how clinical reasoning is performed from a person-centered perspective in team meetings with patients with stroke and next of kin. Methods: Explorative qualitative design employing a thematic analysis of audio recorded communication at three team meetings. In total, three patients, two next of kin, and 15 professionals representing eight health professions, participated in the meetings. Findings: Four themes and eight subthemes were established: a) Emphasizing the patient’s resources; b) Struggling to find a common understanding, including subthemes: Unite the person’s narrative, the relative’s view, and the expertise of the interprofessional team, missed opportunities to clarify patient needs and wishes, and active listening and receptiveness; c) Balancing the patient’s goals and professionals’ goals, including subthemes: Shared goals, the professionals’ view of appropriate goals, and the professionals’ assessment governs achievement of goals; d) Ambiguity in decisions about the management plan, including subthemes: Initiating shared decision making and lack of clarity and consensus. Discussion: This study reveals how the patient, next of kin and team contribute to shared understanding of the patient’s problem. Goals were guided by the patient’s and professionals’ expertise. To improve person-centeredness in clinical reasoning, the team need to fu

OBJECTIVE: To explore how stroke survivors experience and prefer to participate in clinical reasoning processes in the acute phase of stroke care. METHODS: An explorative qualitative design was used. Individual interviews were conducted with 11 stroke survivors in the acute phase of care and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The analysis identified five themes: What's going on with me?; Being a recipient of care and treatment; The need to be supported to participate; To be seen and strengthened; and Collaboration and joint understanding. CONCLUSION: Stroke survivors experience many attributes of person-centeredness in the acute phase of care but, according to their stories, their participation in clinical reasoning can be further supported. The tension between surrendering and the desire to be more actively involved in the care needs to be considered to facilitate participation in clinical reasoning. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Stroke survivors' participation in clinical reasoning in the acute phase can be facilitated by health professionals noticing signs prompting a shift towards increased willingness to participate. Furthermore, health professionals need to take an active role, sharing their expertise and inviting the stroke survivors to share their perspective. The findings can contribute to further develop person-centered care in acute settings., Funding agency:Mälardalen University, School of Health, Care, and Social Welfare

Background Medical errors are reported as a malpractice claim, and it is of uttermost importance to learn from the errors to enhance patient safety. The Swedish national telephone helpline SHD is staffed by registered nurses; its aim is to provide qualified healthcare advice for all residents of Sweden; it handles normally about 5 million calls annually. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have increased call volume with approximate 30%. The aim of the present study was twofold: to describe all malpractice claims and healthcare providers’ reported measures regarding calls to Swedish Healthcare Direct (SHD) during the period January 2011–December 2018 and to compare these findings with results from a previous study covering the period January 2003–December 2010. Methods The study used a descriptive, retrospective and comparative design. A total sample of all reported malpractice claims regarding calls to SHD (n = 35) made during the period 2011–2018 was retrieved. Data were analysed and compared with all reported medical errors during the period 2003–2010 (n = 33). Results Telephone nurses’ failure to follow the computerized decision support system (CDSS) (n = 18) was identified as the main reason for error during the period 2011–2018, while failure to listen to the caller (n = 12) was the main reason during the period 2003–2010. Staff education (n = 21) and listening to one’s own calls (n = 16) were the most common measures taken within the organization during the period 2011–2018, compared to discussion in work groups (n = 13) during the period 2003–2010. Conclusion The proportion of malpractice claims in relation to all patient contacts to SHD is still very low; it seems that only the most severe patient injuries are reported. The fact that telephone nurses’ failure to follow the CDSS is the most common reason for error is notable, as SHD and healthcare organizations stress the importance of using the CDSS to enhance patient safety. The healthcare organizations seem to

Background Nursing care should be respectful of and unrestricted by patients’ age, ethnicity, gender, dis/abilities or social status, and such values should be taught to nursing students. Nursing teachers are crucial as role models, and their values are essential. In telephone nursing, only age, sex and ethnicity are known to the registered nurses, which can be challenging. The aim of this study was to explore awareness of discrimination and inequity in telephone nursing among nursing teachers. Methods A study specific survey was filled in by 135 nursing teachers from three universities in Sweden. The survey included short descriptions of 12 fictive persons who differed in age, ethnicity and sex and with questions about their estimated life situation. The teachers’ estimations of life situation were ranked from lowest probability to highest probability. A ‘good life index’ was constructed and calculated for each fictive person. It included quality of life, power over one’s own life and experience of discrimination. Results The results indicate that the nursing teachers were aware of how power and age, ethnicity and sex are related; that is, they were aware of discrimination and inequity in healthcare. The persons assessed to be most likely to lead a good life were males of Swedish origin, followed by females of Swedish origin. Persons with non-European origin were estimated to have the highest probability of experiencing discrimination. Conclusions The nursing teachers were aware of discrimination and inequity in healthcare. They were able to estimate a fictive person’s life situation based on the limited knowledge of age, ethnicity and sex. This is important, as their values are pivotal in theoretical and practical nursing education.