| 1. |
- Dalheim Englund, Ann-Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Having a child with asthma : quality of life for Swedish parents
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Nursing. - : Wiley. - 0962-1067 .- 1365-2702. ; 13:3, s. 386-395
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease. Childhood asthma contributes significantly to morbidity among children and has a significant impact on the quality of life (QoL) and daily routines of both the children and their parents. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate how Swedish parents of children with asthma experience their QoL, and to investigate whether there were differences concerning QoL between parents within the same family. The purpose was also to investigate possible connections between their QoL and background variables. METHOD: A total of 371 parents of children with asthma (57% mothers and 43% fathers) participated in the study. The Paediatric Asthma Caregiver's Quality Of Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ) was used to measure the parents' QoL, i.e. how the child's asthma interferes with the parents' normal activities and how it has made them feel. RESULTS: The findings show that most parents of children with asthma evaluated their QoL as close to the positive end of the scale, and there was close agreement in the scoring between parents within the same family. Significant associations were found between parents' lower QoL outcome and living in the North of Sweden. There were also significant associations between fathers' lower QoL outcome and having a child younger than 13 years of age and mothers' lower QoL outcome and having a child with severe asthma. Although the result shows that a child's asthma did not influence the parents' QoL to a greater degree, it is still important for healthcare workers to help these parents to sustain and improve their well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that they just evaluated their QoL during the preceding week only, and did so at the time when their children were being treated with asthma medication, might have influenced the results in a positive direction.
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| 2. |
- Edvardsson, David, et al.
(författare)
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Meanings of giving touch in the care of older patients: becoming a valuable person and professional
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Nursing. - : Wiley. - 0962-1067 .- 1365-2702. ; 12:4, s. 601-609
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Touch is central to nursing and health care workers frequently touch their patients, consciously or unconsciously in their interactions with them. Most literature has studied touch from a patient perspective, thus inquiry about professionals' experiences are rare. The aim of this study was to illuminate meanings of giving touch in nursing care of older patients. To understand the meaning of lived experiences of giving touch in care of older patients, interviews with 12 health care professionals in northern Sweden were analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach influenced by the philosophy of Ricoeur. The findings show that giving touch in the care of older patients is a transforming experience, where one suddenly perceives oneself as both a valuable person and professional who no longer powerlessly confronts patients' haunted and disrupted bodies, but who, by means of touch, has gained power to ease this suffering. The experience also transforms the way one regards older patients. Instead of seeing a severely demanding patient suffering from dementia and/or pain, one is able to see the person behind the disease as a human being, like oneself. A relationship described as calm, friendly and humane is created between caregiver and patient when giving touch, a relationship that transcends the moment of touch and influences one's way of caring. This understanding is presented using the theoretical framework of the philosophy of Marcel. Giving touch has the power to shed new light on health care professionals' experiences of caring for older patients suffering from dementia and/or pain, giving them the power to be a valuable person and professional.
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| 3. |
- Edvardsson, David, et al.
(författare)
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Ward atmospheres of horror and healing: a comparative analysis of narrative
- 2003
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Ingår i: Health. - : SAGE Publications. - 1363-4593 .- 1461-7196. ; 7:4, s. 377-396
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aspects of a social setting profoundly influence personal experience in the setting. The purpose of our study was to further understand the phenomenon of ward atmosphere through a detailed case study. One narrator describes and contrasts two ward experiences, one where she lost her mother through death, and the other where she became a mother through birthing. Using classic storytelling forms, she develops a long narrative juxtaposing the two settings: one healing, the other horrifying. Close examination of narrative structure and aesthetics of the illness narrative shows how the narrator forges a discourse about the moral life - how healing should occur. Experiences in the two settings continue to have significance in her subjectivity. The research suggests aspects of ward atmosphere that warrant further investigation.
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| 4. |
- Efraimsson, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Discharge planning : "fooling ourselves?"--patient participation in conferences.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Nursing. - : Wiley. - 0962-1067 .- 1365-2702. ; 13:5, s. 562-570
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The aim of discharge planning conferences (DPCs) is to co-ordinate resources and to enhance patient involvement in care in connection with relocation from hospital. DPCs can be characterized as institutional conversations, and are often executed as standard procedures, but the scientific basis for the activity is weak. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to illuminate and describe the communication at DPCs. DESIGN: A purposeful and consecutive sample of eight DPCs was collected in which the future care of eight women, aged 70 years or more, was discussed. METHODS: Transcribed video recordings were analysed in two steps. "The initial analysis" aimed at describing the structure and content of the communication. This description constituted the basis for an interpretation, leading to "the focused analysis" aiming at finding evidence for the assumptions made in the interpretation. RESULTS: The result revealed that the participation of patients was very less the DPCs. The decisions had often already been made, and the women were expected to be pleased with the decision; institutional representatives (IRs) frequently justified their actions by referring to bureaucratic praxis. CONCLUSIONS: The women were both encouraged and excluded from participation by the IRs. This dichotomy occurred because the IRs, as professionals, struggled to simultaneously realize their caring mission and their obligation to enforce the values and rules of the institution, i.e. efficiency and rationality. Thus, IRs and patients were equally imprisoned within the institutional system. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL RESEARCH: This result illustrates how conflicting paradigms are imbedded and reproduced by healthcare professionals in their communicative praxis. Awareness of this is a prerequisite for improvements in working procedures congruent with a caring paradigm that support patient participation.
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| 5. |
- Efraimsson, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Expressions of power and powerlessness in discharge planning: a case study of an older woman on her way home
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Nursing. - : Wiley. - 0962-1067 .- 1365-2702. ; 12:5, s. 717-716
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this case study was to illuminate and describe the phenomenon of power as it appeared in a discharge planning conference. The patient was an older woman who needed long-term care as a result of stroke and heart failure. Data comprised transcriptions of a video-recorded discharge planning conference and two audio-recorded interviews focusing on the patient's experience of the discharge planning conference. The findings reveal that the content of the discharge planning conference focused on the patient's medical state and routine administrative protocols. Analysis of the participants' activities, strategies and attitudes during the conference indicate that the professional carers dominated the conversation. Analysis further reveals that the patient experienced a feeling of powerlessness and of being treated as an object. The findings are interpreted and discussed based on the concepts of 'institutional frame' and 'client's frame', derived from Agar's theory of institutional discourse.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Rydström, Ingela, et al.
(författare)
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Relations governed by uncertainty : part of life of families of a child with asthma.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Pediatric Nursing. - : W.B. Saunders Co.. - 0882-5963 .- 1532-8449. ; 19:2, s. 85-94
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study identifies what influences and characterizes family relations in families of a child with asthma. Seventeen mothers of children aged between 6 and 16 years participated in audio-taped in-depth interviews. The researchers were inspired by grounded theory in data collection and data analysis. The core category that developed was being governed by disease-engendered uncertainty. The category mothers' availability was seen in two dimensions. The first dimension, mothers' being available for the child with asthma, created two subcategories: 1. control and 2. tight bonds. The second dimension, mothers' being less available for other family members, also created two subcategories: 3. being forsaken and 4. lack of understanding. Nursing implications are discussed in relation to the findings.
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