Scandinavian journal of caring sciences
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Continuity of care (COC) for acutely unwell older adults, particularly those who are nursing home residents, who present to hospital, is complicated by the presence of co-morbid conditions, long waiting times, both for the ambulance and in the department, and poor after-hours general practitioner access. ⋯ The connection between COC and acutely unwell older adults who present to hospital is a prolific area for further research. In particular, the effectiveness of programmes aimed at enhancing the advanced nursing practice role and the COC process for older adults, needs investigation.
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The aim of this study was to describe and compare the self-assessed quality of sleep, occupational health, working environment, illness experience and job satisfaction among female nurses working different combinations of shifts. ⋯ In general Icelandic nurses are satisfied with their work and their shift assignment does not seem to pathologically disrupt their circadian cycle. Nevertheless, nursing directors are advised to look more closely at the organization of nurses' work during night shifts, as well as the rest period for nurses changing from evening to day shifts.
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The aim was to develop and test a questionnaire for use in telephone interviews concerning patient evaluation of geriatric care and rehabilitation. Instrument development was performed comprising qualitative interviews, construction of items, content validation, pilot study and data collection for evaluation of care and rehabilitation, clinical utility, reliability and construct validity. Qualitative interviews were performed with 12 elderly participants. ⋯ The questionnaire is considered valid, reliable and judged to have good clinical utility. The time consumption for the telephone interview is about 10-20 minutes. The questionnaire is useful in defining areas for potential quality improvement in geriatric wards.
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Comparative Study
Doctor and patient perceptions of the level of doctor explanation and quality of patient-doctor communication.
Several measures, such as the frequency, duration and ratio of quantitative communication behaviours, have been used to evaluate patient-doctor communication; however, these measures have several major problems. Therefore, we examined whether doctors' and patients' perceptions of the level of doctors' explanations provide a better measure for evaluating the quality of patient-doctor communication. ⋯ A measure that classifies patient-doctor pairs into doctor-better and the other situations might be effective for evaluating the quality of patient-doctor communication. As this is a new approach to evaluating patient-doctor communication, more studies are necessary to verify these findings.
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The hospice philosophy with focus on the patient's autonomy and the ideal of a good death are the overall objectives of palliative care. Often-raised questions, when discussing hospice, are for which of the incurable ill inpatient hospice is the most optimal care alternative together with who are making use of hospice. The aim of the present study was to describe patient characteristics such as age, marital status, diagnosis, referral source and length of stay (LoS) in relation to gender, during the first decade at an inpatient hospice ward (1992-2001). ⋯ Self-referrals can be seen as one distinct expression from a standpoint of one's own active choice compared with other referrals. Altogether, self-referrals were less frequent among women than men but in relation to age, self-referrals were more common among the youngest (<60 years) and the oldest women (>85 years) than men in the same age groups. Further studies illuminating a gender perspective can broaden the understanding of what these differences may imply for women and men.