A Qualitative Study of Specialized Clinical Nurses' Perceptions of Good Care in Practice

Perceptions of society regarding the concept of nurse: A metaphorical study

INTRODUCTION

Metaphors are one of the most effective linguistic tools that are used to reveal how society describes nursing and what their vision of nursing is and to understand how effective the roles and responsibilities assumed by nurses in a multidisciplinary healthcare team are in protecting and maintaining the health of individuals, families, and society.

AIM

The aim of this study was to reveal the perceptions of society about "nurses" through metaphors.

METHODS

The study was planned with a mixed design involving qualitative and quantitative research methods. It was carried out with 810 people living in Turkey who were between the ages of 15 and 65 and voluntarily participated in the study. Each participant was asked to fill in the blanks in the sentence, "A nurse is like a/an………………because…………" The data were analyzed by using qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (chi-squared) data analysis methods.

RESULTS

It was determined that the participants produced 194 metaphors related to the concept of a "nurse." It was observed that they frequently used metaphors of "angel," "parent," "doctor's assistant/right hand," "lifesaver," and "confidant" regarding the concept of nurse and conceptualized a nurse as "Beneficial/Helpful/Healer/Facilitator."

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

The results showed that the awareness and perception of society toward nurses should be improved on the basis of the opportunity created by the COVID-19 pandemic period, and the concepts should be introduced to younger generations in a wider framework under the leadership of nursing faculties.

Poor Care: A Walker and Avant Concept Analysis

Introduction: Care is the fundamental fact of nursing. In recent years, poor care is discussed frequently in articles and newspapers, however health care providers do not have a common understanding of this concept. Therefore the purpose of this paper was to clarify the concept of poor care in nursing and highlight the importance of tackling this issue. Methods: The concept was analyzed using the 8-step Walker and Avant's method. The SCOPUS, PubMed, ISI, and Embase databases were searched with the keywords "poor care" and "poor nursing care" in the titles and abstracts of articles. Of 550 sources found in the initial survey, 32 articles were finally included in the study. Results: Poor care attributes include poor evaluation, inadequate or inappropriate patient management, and delay, treating, and referring patients to other departments. These attributes are caused by antecedents of nursing workload, the complexity of patient conditions, inappropriate interactions, insufficient workforce, and educational and organizational factors. Conclusion: Poor care is a general concept that includes undesirable and unacceptable standards for receiving or providing clinical and interpersonal health services. Poor care includes eliminating planned activities or performing unplanned activities that are experienced by the patient, health care workers, or caregivers.

Development and psychometric evaluation of a quality nursing care scale from nurses' perspective

Aim

To develop and evaluate psychometric property of quality nursing care scale (QNCS) from nurses’ perspective in the Chinese context.

Design

A cross‐sectional survey design.

Methods

This study was conducted in two phases. In Phase I, literature review and interviews were conducted to develop the items. In Phase II, content validity was evaluated by five experts. Construct validity was tested through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) among 302 nurses and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) among 510 nurses from October 2014 to January 2015. Additionally, internal consistency reliability was tested.

Results

The EFA extracted six factors including staff characteristics, task‐oriented activities, human‐oriented activities, physical environment, patient outcomes and precondition. All six factors accounted for 74.78% of the total variance to explain quality nursing care. The modified measurement model of the final version of QNCS was supported by the CFA with 48 items in six dimensions. The internal consistency reliability of final QNCS was acceptable.

Patient voice on management of facial dermatological adverse events with targeted therapies: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

With the increased use of targeted therapies in oncology, dermatological adverse events (dAEs) have drawn attention. Because the face is crucial for human identity and social interactions, facial dAEs have significant impact on a patient's quality of life. This study aimed to explore patients' experience with regard to the management of targeted oncological therapy-induced facial dAEs.

METHODS

In this qualitative study, 20 patients at a university hospital in Japan with advanced/metastatic cancer and targeted therapy-induced facial dAEs were individually interviewed to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Patients with cancer and targeted oncological therapy-induced facial dAEs who were referred to the Department of Dermatology had certain expectations from specialist services. Three key themes were identified: professional input and advice, empathetic commitment to individual management, and integrated care across specialties.

CONCLUSIONS

The referred patients with cancer and facial dAEs needed more in-depth information and advice from dermatological services and were reassured by the empathetic commitment to individual management in integrated care across specialties. These findings suggest that attention to the patient's perspective with a "sick person first" attitude and a collaborative effort across different specialties is important to minimize the effects of facial dAEs on the quality of life of patients with cancer.