International journal of nursing studies
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This exploratory study investigated nurses' self-assessment of their own nursing competencies, job demands and job performance in Taiwan. Nurses' self-evaluation on their own job performance was conceptualized as an indicator of nursing care quality. A total of 21 competencies were clustered into three groups: basic-level patient care skills, intermediate-level patient care and fundamental management skills, and advanced-level patient care and supervision skills. ⋯ Nurses' self-assessment on basic patient care skills and advanced patient care skills contributed to nurses' levels of overall satisfaction with their own nursing competencies. These results suggest a relationship between competency and performance. These findings may serve as a guide to amend academic nursing courses and on-job training programs as appropriate to place a greater emphasis on the competencies desired for providing high quality of nursing services.
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The purpose of this exploratory study was to describe Greek registered nurses' personal and professional pain experiences and to examine the relationship with their pain management knowledge. Forty-six Greek nurses provided written responses to open-ended questions about their personal and professional experiences with pain and beliefs about suffering. ⋯ One nurse wrote " em leader I begged to lose consciousness, in order not to feel". These compelling accounts might motivate nurses to strengthen their understanding of pain management.
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This paper describes the development of a Japanese version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Four independent Japanese translations were made and used to develop a single Japanese version. This was back-translated into English. ⋯ High Cronbach's alpha coefficient was shown for both versions. Factor analysis revealed that the PSS and PSSJ showed an almost identical factor structure. Therefore, the equivalence between the PSS and PSSJ and the validity for each scale was underpinned.
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This 18-month study used a structured questionnaire to explore the roles of nursing care on the occurrence and consequences of unplanned endotracheal extubation (UEE) in intensive care units in Taiwan. Experiencing UEE were 225/1176 (22.5%) intubated patients: 91.7% were self-extubations and 8.3% were accidental. ⋯ Accidental extubations occurred most frequently in patients undergoing routine nursing procedures, usually required immediate re-intubation and were associated with more complications. An appropriate nurse-to-patient ratio, better working procedures and continual nursing education programs might help reduce occurrence and complications of UEE.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sufferers number approximately 200 million people around the world. In Korea, there is no accurate statistical information, but 1-2% of the total population have been estimated to be suffering from RA. Current research studies related to RA have been limited to quantitative approaches. ⋯ The results of this study identified 8 major theme clusters, which were 'severe pain', 'self-esteem', 'negative feelings', 'reflect the past life', 'concentrate on recovery from disease', 'a comfortable mind in pain', 'support of family and others', and 'new life'. These results may provide important information to establish effective interventions for women with RA, their families, and health providers through understanding various aspects of the lived experience of women with RA. The implications for nursing practice in this area of chronic illness such as RA, should be how patients can be empowered to believe they can take control of their disease and their lives.