Responsibility in intensive care: a critical analysis

Biological consequences of zinc deficiency in the pathomechanisms of selected diseases

From many points of view, zinc is one of the most important trace elements in biological systems. Many articles describe the well-known role of this metal in human physiology and pathophysiology, but in the related literature, there is a lack of current and reliable reviews of the role of zinc deficiency in many diseases. In this article, we describe the role of zinc deficiency in the oxidative stress control, immune response, proliferation, and pathogenesis and pathophysiology of selected diseases such as depression, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease, and Wilson's disease.

Breaking the silence: nurses' understandings of change in clinical practice

AIM

This paper reports a study exploring critical care nurses' understandings of change in their practice.

BACKGROUND

In contemporary nursing literature, change in clinical nursing practice is generally understood to be a rational process, synonymous with progress. It is seen as invariably contested, and hence difficult to achieve. It is represented as occurring infrequently. This literature effectively silences clinicians as this discourse of change does not recognize or incorporate their views or practices.

METHODS

This study was informed by a Foucauldian poststructuralist framework. The participants were 12 critical care nurses who engaged in three individual in-depth, focused interviews. The transcripts were deconstructed to reveal participants' discourses of change and the implications of these discourses for nursing work. The data were generated between 1996 and 1998 as part of a study whose in-depth analysis was completed in 2003.

FINDINGS

Change was revealed as a highly complex phenomenon, closely intertwined with understandings of clinical nursing work. Participants showed difficulty in identifying or recalling clinical changes. Several dichotomies shaped their understandings of change, including change/stasis, formal/informal and dramatic/subtle. Their experiences of change frequently conflicted with prevailing dominant understandings, but they did not openly challenge them. Rather, they employed dichotomies, such as abstract/concrete and other/self, to enable them to work with these conflicts. As a result, they engaged in practices such as naming other nurses as 'irrational'.

CONCLUSION

The data provide new understandings of change in clinical nursing practice, some of which challenge many widely held views (for example, that such change is a rare occurrence). It is argued that a lack of open challenge by clinical nurses contributes to their silencing, promotes disharmony amongst nurses and, hence, works against a collaborative approach to decisions about clinical practice.

Autonomy among intensive care nurses in Finland

The purpose of this study was to describe Finnish ICU nurses' (n=172) experiences of autonomy in their work. The research was carried out as part of a project concerned with empowerment in intensive care nursing. Viewed from a psychological perspective, empowerment is understood as referring to the ability to make goal-directed decisions and to take action towards meeting the goals set out. Autonomy, then, is seen as part of empowerment. The data were collected with a structured questionnaire specially designed for this study. The random sample was drawn from 31 Finnish adult intensive care units. The respondents were registered nurses working in eight adult intensive care units. The data were analysed using statistical methods. Autonomy was defined as being composed of three bases: knowledge base (independence, right and responsibility in decision-making), action base (independence, right and responsibility in actions) and value base (independence, right and responsibility in values). The majority of the respondents felt they had more autonomy in decision-making and actions concerning patient care than in decision-making and actions concerning the intensive care unit as a whole. Autonomy usually increased with work experience. Work will be continued to study the autonomy of nurses in different health care organisations in Finland.

Role expansion in intensive care: survey of nurses' views

The study described here is an investigation of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' perceptions of how their role is expanding. Six specific skills were selected for consideration. A questionnaire was distributed to nurses working in ICUs in three different hospitals. Questions were based around issues such as education and assessment policies, the transfer of work between nurses and other groups of workers and the effects of ICU nurses accumulating additional skills. Completed questionnaires were received from 33 participants (68.75% response rate). The results showed that most of the nurses were carrying out the skills suggested. The training provided to underpin skill development was a balance of teaching and supervision. However, assessment practices varied. The majority of nurses felt that the existing training programmes were adequate. Data revealed that a range of duties could be released from their role and taken over by other workers, such as technicians and health care assistants. Participants suggested that the crucial element of the nursing role was the incorporation of many activities into the provision of continuous one-to-one total patient care. This was the aspect of work that was reported as being the most satisfying. It was perceived that patients benefited from nurses extending their role in the areas discussed.

Understanding change in clinical nursing practice

The present paper employs a poststructural framework to explore the construction of change in clinical nursing practice, as portrayed in nursing literature. In it a critique of two specific bodies of literature is offered: that which deals with the 'abstract' conception of change (but which is heavily influenced by organizational discourses) and that which describes changes in the clinical setting of critical care nursing practice. It is argued that the discursive constitution of change that is revealed in this analysis disadvantages clinical nurses. Because the context in which change occurs is largely unacknowledged, clinical nursing practice, as experienced and understood by nurses, is also marginalized. Change in clinical practice is under-researched, and such inquiry should be undertaken from the perspective of nurses themselves, and requires an exploration of the discursive context of nursing work.

Role extension or expansion: a qualitative investigation of the perceptions of senior medical and nursing staff in an adult intensive care unit

The Scope of Professional Practice (UKCC 1992) has significantly altered the interpretation of nurses' roles, emphasizing individual professional accountability and clinical decision-making. However, 5 years after the issue of the document, uncertainties remain regarding interprofessional legal accountability between medicine and nursing. To investigate issues surrounding role extension or expansion in intensive care nursing, a small qualitative study was conducted centred on one intensive care unit (ICU) within a large teaching hospital. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews from a purposive sample of five senior intensive care nurses and three consultant anaesthetists. Four major categories emerged, identified as: interpretation confusion; education for change; struggles for power and task versus autonomy. The findings revealed that the senior critical care nurses identified themselves as independent, autonomous practitioners involved in clinical decision-making. However, there was evidence of a reluctance to empower more junior staff to perform extended or expanded roles. Medical respondents viewed extended or expanded roles as taking on mechanical tasks for which anyone could be trained to perform. In conclusion, it is argued that although nursing is maturing in its growth towards professionalization, broader issues such as the legal quagmire, failure to adopt the philosophy of role expansion and the existence of sacred boundaries intra- and inter-professionally need to be addressed.