International journal of nursing studies
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Interprofessional education (IPE) introduced at the beginning of pre-registration training for healthcare professionals attempts to prevent the formation of negative interprofessional attitudes which may hamper future interprofessional collaboration. However, the potential for IPE depends, to some extent, on the readiness of healthcare students to learn together. ⋯ The findings provide support for introducing IPE at the start of the healthcare students' professional education to capitalise on students' readiness for interprofessional learning and professional identities, which appear to be well formed from the start. However, this study suggests that students who enter with negative attitudes towards interprofessional learning may gain the least from IPE courses and that an unrewarding experience of such courses may further reinforce their negative attitudes.
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Acute confusional state (ACS) is a common and difficult condition among older patients with a variety of opinions about how to act when encountering patients with ACS. Few studies to our knowledge have been found exploring the encounter from the perspective of older patients and their experiences. ⋯ Within the encounter the older patients with ACS are searching for answers to what is happening and why. The patients feel dependent on the persons they encounter and their willingness to understand and communicate. The patients also feel lonely, unnecessarily questioned and untrustworthy; but they can also feel safe, trusted and understood.
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The personal use of and professional recommendation for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been found to be related to nurses' knowledge and type of training background. Little, however, is known about CAM usage among nurses from Hong Kong who while of Chinese origin, are educated in western medical principles while exhibiting both folk knowledge and lay use of CAM in their daily lives. ⋯ More knowledge of CAM was in general, welcomed among nurses, with 93.6% of the nurses surveyed reporting an interest in further learning. A major recommendation is that HK registered nurses receive professional CAM training as a means to enhance patient care.
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Only a fifth of older people undertake a level of physical activity sufficient to lead to health benefit. Misconceptions about the ageing process and beliefs about the costs and benefits of exercise in late life may result in unnecessary self-imposed activity restriction. Thus, adhering to a physical activity can be difficult particularly when the benefits of exercise are often not immediate. Many of the barriers to engaging in physical activity among older people are attitudinal. It is therefore important to take account of the non-physical aspects of physical activity intervention programmes, such as increasing confidence. Self-efficacy is a widely applied theory used to understand health behaviour and facilitate behavioural modification, such as the increase of physical activity. ⋯ A number of studies have demonstrated that exercise self-efficacy is strongly associated with the amount of physical activity undertaken. Evidence from some trials supports the view that incorporating the theory of self-efficacy into the design of a physical activity intervention is beneficial. Physical activity interventions aimed at improving the self perception of exercise self-efficacy can have positive effects on confidence and the ability to initiate and maintain physical activity behaviour. There are a number of ways for nurses to facilitate older people to draw on the four information sources of self-efficacy: performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, verbal encouragement, and physiological and affective states. Research challenges that future studies need to address include the generalisability of exercise setting, the role of age as an effect modifier, and the need for more explicit reporting of how self-efficacy is operationalised in interventions.
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Comparative Study
A prospective comparative study of the relationship between different types of ring and microbial hand colonization among pediatric intensive care unit nurses.
The aim of the study is to assess the effect of ring wearing and ring types on hand contamination and efficacy of alcohol-based hand disinfection among nurses working in intensive care settings. ⋯ Ring wearing increases the bacterial colonization of hands and alcohol-based hand disinfection might not significantly reduce contamination of the ring-wearing hands. The type of ring did not cause any significant difference on the bacterial load. Wearing rings could increase the frequency of transmission of potential nosocomial pathogens.