What information counts at the moment of practice? Information practices of renal nurses

Fractured academic space: digital literacy and the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The study focussed on information literacy practices, specifically on how higher education staff managed the transition from established and routinised in-person teaching, learning and working practices to institutionally mandated remote or hybrid working patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative study forms part of a broader research project, examining how information literacy and information practices unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase Three of this project, which forms the subject of this paper, employed semi-structured interviews to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace and, in particular, the role that technology and digital literacy plays in enabling or constraining information literacy practices necessary for the operationalisation of work.

Findings

The complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a fracturing of workplace information environments and worker information landscapes by disrupting all aspects of academic life. The study recognises that whilst the practice of information literacy is predicated on access to modalities of information, this practice is also shaped by material conditions. This has implications for digital literacy which, in attempting to set itself apart from information literacy practice, has negated the significant role that the body and the corporeal modality play as important sources of information that enable transition to occur. In relation to information resilience, the bridging concept of fracture has enabled the authors to consider the informational impact of crisis and transition on people's information experiences and people's capacity to learn to go on when faced with precarity. The concept of grief is introduced into the analysis.

Originality/value

This study presents original research.

Becoming a competent weaver: information literacy practice of the weavers of the Bonwire Kente Centre in Ghana

Purpose

This study examines what constitutes competence and how a novice becoming a competent weaver is enabled by information literacy in the fabric-weavers’ workplace landscape.

Design/methodology/approach

Ethnography as a research design was employed using participant observation and semi-structured interviews as the data collection techniques.

Findings

Competence constitutes the demonstration of Kente knowledge and mentorship capability enabled by information literacy through access to the on-the-loom and off-the-loom information in the Kente-weaving landscape.

Research limitations/implications

This study explains how the transition from a novice weaver to a competent weaver is underpinned by information literacy.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies that contribute to the understanding of information literacy in the craft workplace. The study proposes a framework for weavers' information literacy practice.

A systematic review of information practices research

Purpose

This systematic literature review aims to elaborate the research progress of information practices to help other researchers attain a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of the field.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a systematic review protocol, 123 research articles from nine academic databases were included in the analysis.

Findings

Four separate results can be outlined. First, practice theory, social constructionist theory and activity theory are often used as the theoretical basis for the study of information practices. Second, people will engage in specific information practice activities in different external and internal contexts. The external contexts include social and needs contexts. The internal contexts include information source horizons, user's affection and user's cognition. Third, the existing information practice models can be divided into static and dynamic types. These models mainly reflected activities and influencing factors of information practices. Fourth, qualitative methods were the most used in information practice research.

Research limitations/implications

The field of information practices is a vast, expanding research field. This research will focus only on a specific section, namely concepts, activities, contexts and models. Researchers could contribute to exploring the concepts, components and mechanisms of information practices by combining theories from various disciplines, such as sociology and behavioral science.

Originality/value

This is the first study to reveal the general picture of information practices. It also elaborates the characteristics of people's information practices and shows the potential development direction for future research.

The missing link: Towards an integrated health and information literacy research agenda

Information forms one of the main commonalities shared between definitions of health literacy. However, information literacy research, which centres how people become informed within a specific setting, has been almost completely sidelined from health literacy scholarship. This oversight risks limiting understanding of how health literacy is practised as well as narrowing research discourses. It also forms a missed opportunity as the recent sociocultural turn creates a valuable point of synergy between each field. This paper carries out a narrative literature review to identify key areas where information literacy research could help to extend understanding about how people interact with information within health contexts. Centred on exploring theoretical and empirical work, the paper uses examples from literature to suggest that assumptions related to how information, models of information use, social dynamics of information environments, the outcomes of information activity and critical approaches to information practice are understood impact the scope and the reach of health literacy research and practice. The goal of this paper is to establish an initial, shared research agenda that places health and information literacy in dialogue rather than in isolation from each other.

Seven information practices for alleviating information vulnerability

Purpose

This literature review aims to identify conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferrable information-related decisions and activities (i.e. information practices) for individuals to alleviate their information vulnerability. Information vulnerability refers to the lack of access to accurate, affordable, complete, relevant and timely information or the inability to use such information, which can place individuals, communities or society at disadvantage or hurt them.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual literature review.

Findings

This review presents seven conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferrable information practices to alleviate information vulnerability.

Practical implications

Due to the transferability potential of the seven information practices, diverse populations in varied contexts could refer to, adapt and benefit from appropriate combinations of information practices and their manifestations. The framework can be used by individuals for alleviating information vulnerability. Thus, this paper responds to the call for conducting action-driven research in information science for addressing real-world problems. Information professionals can help individuals select and implement appropriate combinations of seven information practices for alleviating information vulnerability.

Originality/value

We propose (1) a parsimonious, episodic framework for alleviating information vulnerability, which depicts the inter-relationship among the seven information practices and (2) a three-dimensional plot with information access, use and value as three axes to map the manifestation and outcome of alleviating information vulnerability.

Ambiguity, standards and contextual distance: archaeological heritage administrators and their information work

Archaeological heritage administrators hold a key position as managers of archaeological information production. This article reports findings of an interview study conducted in Sweden (N=10) that focuses on providing an in-depth description of archaeology heritage administrators’ work with a focus on their information work practices and factors that influence how it unfolds. The findings show that its critical success factors focus on the adequacy and availability of resources, personal experience and functioning collaborations with key stakeholders and colleagues, and balancing between following and interpreting formal guidelines, boundaries and standards of the work. Based on a reading of the findings inspired by Luhmann and White, it is suggested that the administrators’ ability to balance between standards and ambiguity and regulate their personal contextual distance to the projects they were working on helped them switch between acting as subject experts and relying on others to maintain a control over their information work-as-whole.

Facilitating the Implementation of Standardized Care Plans in Municipal Healthcare

Standardized care plans have the potential to enhance the quality of nursing records in terms of content and completeness, thereby better supporting workflow, easing the documentation process, facilitating continuity of care, and permitting systematic data gathering to build evidence from practice. Despite these potential benefits, there may be challenges associated with the successful adoption and use of standardized care plans in municipal healthcare information practices. Using a participatory approach, two workshops were conducted with nurses and nursing leaders (n = 11) in two Norwegian municipalities, with the objective of identifying success criteria for the adoption and integration of standardized care plans into practice. Three themes were found to describe the identified success criteria: (1) "facilitating system level support for nurses' workflow"; (2) "engaged individuals creating a culture for using standardized care plans"; and (3) "developing system level safety nets." The findings suggest success criteria that could be useful to address to facilitate the integration of standardized care plans in municipal healthcare information practice and provide useful knowledge for those working with implementation and further development of standardized care plans.

Exploring the information practices of lawyers

Purpose

This study examines the information practices of Israeli lawyers highlighting the central role that information plays in professional communities of practice. Examining the information practices of lawyers characterizes the information behavior of this community of practice.

Design/methodology/approach

Information practices are those recurrent practices related to actively seeking information for a variety of sources socially and contextually situated within members of a professional community. Twenty semi-structured interviews were carried out with lawyers in Israel that investigated the different ways by which lawyers interact with information in their professional work. Data collected in the interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach.

Findings

Findings from the content analysis of the interviews revealed three main themes: information assimilation, networking and self-promotion and content creation that encompass a wide variety of information practices related to seeking information related to a case, preparing and presenting a case, providing support for the client, collaborating with other members of the professional community and promoting their professional practice.

Originality/value

This study provides an innovating perspective of the ways by which an information-rich community of practice engages with information, solves problems, build social connections and creates new content.

Hidden and forbidden: conceptualising Dark Knowledge

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of Dark Knowledge, an epistemology that acknowledges both alternative knowledge and ways of knowing which are cognizant of the moral and ethical positioning of each.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that uses existing relevant literature to develop the work. The paper uses a four-stage literature search process and draws upon a range of disciplines, including philosophy, computer science and information management, to underpin the evolution of the concept.

Findings

As a conceptual paper, no empirical findings are presented. Instead, the paper presents an embryonic model of Dark Knowledge and identifies a number of characteristics, which may be used to explore the concept in more detail.

Research limitations/implications

There is a clear need to develop a body of empirical work, adding to the theoretical perspectives presented in this paper. It is anticipated that this paper will provide one of the cornerstones for future studies in this area.

Originality/value

The paper makes an original contribution to the study of information behaviours, practices and epistemology.

“Write the story you want to read”: world-queering through slash fanfiction creation

Purpose

This pilot study explores how queer slash fanfiction writers reorient cis/heteronormative entertainment media (EM) content to create queer information worlds.

Design/methodology/approach

Constructivist grounded theory was employed to explore queer individuals' slash fanfiction reading and creation practices. Slash fanfiction refers to fan-written texts that recast cis/heteronormative content with queer characters, relationships, and themes. Theoretical sampling drove ten semi-structured interviews with queer slash writers and content analysis of both Captain America slash and material features found on two online fanfiction platforms, Archive of Our Own and fanfiction.net. “Queer” serves as a theoretical lens through which to explore non-cis/heteronormative perspectives on gender and sexuality.

Findings

Participants' interactions with and creation of slash fanfiction constitute world-queering practices wherein individuals reorient cis/heteronormative content, design systems, and form community while developing their identities over time. Findings suggest ways that queer creators respond to, challenge, and reorient cis/heteronormative narratives perpetuated by EM and other information sources, as well as ways their practices are constrained by structural power dynamics.

Research limitations/implications

This initial data collection only begins to explore the topic with ten interviews. The participant sample lacks racial diversity while the content sample focuses on one fandom. However, results suggest future directions for theoretical sampling that will continue to advance constructs developed from the data.

Originality/value

This research contributes to evolving perspectives on information creation and queer individuals' information practices. In particular, findings expand theoretical frameworks related to small worlds and ways in which members of marginalized populations grapple with exclusionary normativity.

Professional relationships between nephrology clinicians and patients: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Nephrology nurses and patients expressed that the clinician-patient relationship in a haemodialysis (HD) unit might be best described as being part of an extended family. However, there is a risk that professional boundaries may become blurred due to the perceived closeness of this relationship.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review sought to explore the experiences of nephrology clinicians in establishing and maintaining a professional relationship with people experiencing end-stage kidney disease who are receiving HD treatment.

METHOD

A search strategy was created using JBI systematic review guidelines for six databases (PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and JBI library). Qualitative studies were eligible for inclusion when the participants were nephrology clinicians who provided HD treatment or management of patients in a hospital outpatient HD unit or a community HD centre.

RESULTS

Three studies met the inclusion criteria and the findings were synthesised into two themes (1) establishing a professional relationship and (2) coping mechanisms. All three studies focused on nephrology clinicians realising the importance of treating patients as individuals. Nephrology clinicians demonstrated advanced communication skills, empathy and compassion when interacting with patients, which seemed to contribute to patient satisfaction. This systematic review found some qualitative evidence to explain how nephrology clinicians establish and maintain a professional clinician-patient relationship with patients in the HD unit.

CONCLUSION

This review highlighted a significant gap in research concerning the trajectory of the clinician-patient relationship across all members of the renal multidisciplinary health care team.

Uncomfortable in my own skin – emerging, early-stage identity-related information needs of transgender people

Purpose

This study aims to increase the understanding of the early-stage identity-related information needs of transgender people.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws on social constructivism, queer theory and information practice research. In accordance with the queer phenomenological approach which emphasises lived experiences, data was collected by interviewing 25 individuals who identified as transgender. The data was analysed with a focus on how early-stage information needs are formed into conscious information needs.

Findings

The formation of early-stage information needs were conceptualised as a chain including a trigger for information seeking, finding the right words and understanding the experience. Especially the bodily changes starting at puberty were strong causes of discomfort causing friction between the subjects' own gendered body and their gender experience, even leading to gender dysphoria. Finding words to describe the experience played an important role in the process of identity formation. In many cases this was difficult because of the lack of accurate and relevant information.

Social implications

Providing information especially of varying transgender experiences is vital for individuals trying to understand and verbalise their gender identity.

Originality/value

This study provides an understanding of the early-stage information needs described by transgender people and the process of building identities through disorientation. This study suggests that early-stage information needs are a valid concept to help understand how embodied experiences and the friction between the lived experience and the social world can lead to information seeking.

Delivering direct patient care in the haemodialysis unit: a focused ethnographic study of care delivery

Background

Direct patient care is a term used within nursing and healthcare to help quantify and qualify care delivery. Direct patient care time is considered as a valuable measure by healthcare providers to indicate efficiency and to quantify nursing work, however little is understood of the patient experience and care delivery in haemodialysis settings.

Aim

The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of patients' and nursing staff perceptions and experiences of 'direct patient care' within one haemodialysis unit.

Methods

A focused ethnographic approach utilised participant observations, informal questioning, photographs and 27 semi-structured interviews of registered nurses, clinical support workers and patients. Observation notes and interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed.

Results

The key finding was the construction and reconceptualisation of care delivery in this setting. Care was identified to be delivered in two distinct ways, both of which allowed patients to feel cared for. 'Active care' where patients feel cared for when they are being dealt with directly by staff and 'Passive care' where patients feel cared for through staff availability and visibility.

Conclusion

Developing this understanding of patient care delivery in this specialism has highlighted some important aspects to the way care can be delivered which challenges current traditional understandings of direct patient care. Time spent with a patient is not the only important consideration to patient experience in haemodialysis. This understanding of passive care could improve care experiences in this setting.

Exploring sensings in practice: affect and knowledge sharing

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of knowledge sharing and what is experienced as being shared as knowledge sharing unfolds. In particular, the paper explores affect as a key aspect of knowledge sharing in an organisational context.

Design/methodology/approach

A practice theoretical approach is applied to the study combined with a phenomenological research methodology that focusses on the “lived experience” of participants.

Findings

Knowledge-sharing practice was found to encompass cognitive, social, bodily and affective dimensions. Affect was found to be a significant component of the practice as revealed by participant emotion and the use of conversational humour.

Research limitations/implications

In light of the findings, the researcher recommends a focus on participant sensings in practice theoretical research, in combination with sayings, doings and relatings.

Originality/value

The approach to the study is significant in that, in contrast to previous practice-based research in information studies, it applied a methodology adapted from phenomenology. This combination of approaches opened the investigation to the multi-dimensional experiential nature of knowledge-sharing practice highlighting the significant role of affect in knowledge sharing.

Nurses' information practice in municipal health care-A web-like landscape

AIM

To uncover the characteristics of nurses' information practice in municipal health care and to address how, when and why various pieces of information are produced, shared and managed.

BACKGROUND

Nursing documentation in the electronic patient record has repeatedly been found unsatisfactory. Little is known about how the information practice of nurses in municipal health care actually is borne out. In order to understand why nursing documentation continues to fail at living up to the expected requirements, a better understanding of nurses' information practice is needed.

DESIGN

A qualitative observational field study. The study complied with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research.

METHODS

Empirical data were collected in three Norwegian municipalities through participant observations and individual interviews with 17 registered nurses on regular day shifts. The data were analysed through thematic content analysis.

RESULTS

Nurses' information practice in municipal health care can be described as complex. The complexity is reflected in four themes that emerged from the data: (1) web of information sources, (2) knowing the patient and information redundancy, (3) asynchronous information practice and (4) compensatory workarounds.

CONCLUSIONS

The complex and asynchronous nature of nurses' information practice affected both how and when information was produced, recorded and shared. When available systems lacked functions the nurses wanted, they created compensatory workarounds. Although electronic patient record was an important part of their information practice, nurses in long-term care often knew their patients well, which meant that a lot of information about the patients was in their heads, and that searching for information in the electronic patient record sometimes seemed redundant.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

This study provides contextual knowledge that might be valuable (a) in the further development of information systems tailored to meet nurses' information needs and (b) when studying patient safety in relation to nurses' information practice.

‘Add info and stir’: an institutional ethnographic scoping review of family care-givers’ information work

Family care-givers are increasingly expected to find, understand and use information to meet the complex needs of older adults in their care. A significant number of studies, however, continue to report that care-givers’ information needs are unmet. Following Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework, I examined 72 articles for the range and extent of available research on the information work done by family care-givers of community-dwelling older adults living with dementia. To untangle the complex relationship between information and care, this scoping review maps out (a) the ways scholarly literature conceptualises the informational components of family care-givers’ work and (b) the degree to which scholarly research acknowledges these components as work. An institutional ethnography inflection enhanced the scoping review framework, enabling the privileging of lived experiences, questioning of assumptions of language used, attending to authors’ positioning and highlighting care-givers’ information work made invisible throughout the processes of academic research.

Information literacy skills and training of licensed practical nurses in Alberta, Canada: results of a survey

BACKGROUND

Although information literacy skills are recognized as important to the curriculum and professional outcomes of two-year nursing programs, there is a lack of research on the information literacy skills and support needed by graduates.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the information literacy skills and consequent training and support required of Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) in Alberta, Canada.

METHOD

An online survey using a random sample of new graduates (graduated within 5 years) from the registration database of the College of Practical Nurses of Alberta (CLPNA).

RESULTS

There was a 43% response rate. Approximately 25-38% of LPNs felt they were only moderately or to a small extent prepared to use evidence effectively in their professional practice. LPNs use the internet and websites most frequently, in contrast to library resources that are used least frequently. Developing lifelong learning skills, using information collaboratively, and locating and retrieving information are areas where LPNs desire more effective or increased training.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest there are significant gaps in the preparedness and ability of LPNs to access and apply research evidence effectively in the workplace. There are several areas in which the training provided by Librarians appears either misaligned or ineffective.

Information literacy, creativity and work performance

In the digital age, information literacy, defined as the ability to effectively identify information needs, access needed information, and evaluate and use information, is a crucial skill set for both individuals and organizations. Therefore, understanding the relationships between information literacy, creativity, and work performance could not only help enterprises recognize the importance of information literacy and its influence on the workplace, but also provide educators with guidance for planning related training programs. This empirical study explores the relationships between self-efficacy in information literacy, creativity and work performance. The findings show that (1). self-efficacy in defining information needs, self-efficacy in evaluating information and self-efficacy in using information can significantly positively affect creativity; (2). creativity can significantly positively affect work performance; and, (3). creativity mediates the association between self-efficacy in information literacy and work performance. Implications based on the findings are also discussed.

Enacting and capturing embodied knowledge in the practices of enthusiast car restorers: Emerging themes

This paper reports on emerging themes drawn from a larger ongoing qualitative study of car restorers which explores themes of embodiment, embodied knowledge and ways of knowing. The themes described in this current article indicate that car restoration is bounded within a discourse of loyalty to the particular type of practice and its projects (restoration), its material object (the car) and to narratives of expertise, maintenance and preservation. The study’s findings also demonstrate that enthusiast car restorers, along with other serious leisure communities, have become the unacknowledged custodians of a large body of hands-on knowledge which would otherwise be in danger of being lost in an increasingly post-industrial world.

Reorienting Esthetic Knowing as an Appropriate "Object" of Scientific Inquiry to Advance Understanding of a Critical Pattern of Nursing Knowledge in Practice

The esthetic pattern of knowing is critical for nursing practice, yet remains weakly defined and understood. This gap has arguably relegated esthetic knowing to an "ineffable" creativity that resists transparency and understanding, which is a barrier to articulating its value for nursing and its importance in producing beneficial health outcomes. Current philosophy of science developments are synthesized to argue that esthetic knowing is an appropriate "object" of scientific inquiry. Examples of empirical scholarship that can be conceived as scientific inquiry into manifestations of esthetic knowing are highlighted. A program of research is outlined to advance a science of esthetic knowing.

Understanding Health Literacy for People Living With HIV: Locations of Learning

Health literacy, including people's abilities to access, process, and comprehend health-related information, has become an important component in the management of complex and chronic diseases such as HIV infection. Clinical measures of health literacy that focus on patients' abilities to follow plans of care ignore the multidimensionality of health literacy. Our thematic analysis of 28 focus groups from a qualitative, multisite, multinational study exploring information practices of people living with HIV (PLWH) demonstrated the importance of location as a dimension of health literacy. Clinical care and conceptual/virtual locations (media/Internet and research studies) were used by PLWH to learn about HIV and how to live successfully with HIV. Nonclinical spaces where PLWH could safely discuss issues such as disclosure and life problems were noted. Expanding clinical perspectives of health literacy to include location, assessing the what and where of learning, and trusted purveyors of knowledge could help providers improve patient engagement in care.

Tapping into the information landscape: Refugee youth enactment of information literacy in everyday spaces

The development of information literacy and learning practices in everyday spaces is explored.

Data for the study was collected using photo voice technique. Data analysis was conducted using photos and analysis of group transcripts. Participants describe how they tapped into social, physical and digital sites to draw information in the process of (re) forming their information landscapes, building bridges into new communities and maintaining links with family overseas. Media formats were identified according to their appropriateness as fit for purpose, suggesting that the enactment of information literacy was agile and responsive to need at the moment of practice. The results indicate that everyday spaces provide opportunities to develop information literacy practices, which support informal learning. Findings of the study conclude that information literacy is played out in a series of digital, vernacular and visual enactments, which shape the information landscape.

What everybody knows: embodied information in serious leisure

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the role of the body in information in serious leisure by reviewing existing work in information behaviour that theorises the role of the body, and by drawing selectively on literature from beyond information studies to extend our understanding.

Design/methodology/approach

After finding a lack of attention to the body in most influential works on information behaviour, the paper identifies a number of important authors who do offer theorisations. It then explores what can be learnt by examining studies of embodied information in the hobbies of running, music and the liberal arts, published outside the discipline.

Findings

Auto-ethnographic studies influenced by phenomenology show that embodied information is central to the hobby of running, both through the diverse sensory information the runner uses and through the dissemination of information by the body as a sign. Studies of music drawing on the theory of embodied cognition, similarly suggest that it is a key part of amateur music information behaviour. Even when considering the liberal arts hobby, the core activity, reading, has been shown to be in significant ways embodied. The examples reveal how it is not only in more obviously embodied leisure activities such as sports, in which the body must be considered.

Research limitations/implications

Embodied information refers to how the authors receive information from the senses and the way the body is a sign that can be read by others. To fully understand this, more empirical and theoretical work is needed to reconcile insights from practice theory, phenomenology, embodied cognition and sensory studies.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates how and why the body has been neglected in information behaviour research, reviews current work and identifies perspectives from other disciplines that can begin to fill the gap.

Describing knowledge encounters in healthcare: a mixed studies systematic review and development of a classification

Background

Implementation science seeks to promote the uptake of research and other evidence-based findings into practice, but for healthcare professionals, this is complex as practice draws on, in addition to scientific principles, rules of thumb and a store of practical wisdom acquired from a range of informational and experiential sources. The aims of this review were to identify sources of information and professional experiences encountered by healthcare workers and from this to build a classification system, for use in future observational studies, that describes influences on how healthcare professionals acquire and use information in their clinical practice.

Methods

This was a mixed studies systematic review of observational studies. DATA SOURCES: OVID MEDLINE and Embase and Google Scholar were searched using terms around information, knowledge or evidence and sharing, searching and utilisation combined with terms relating to healthcare groups. ELIGIBILITY: Studies were eligible if one of the intentions was to identify information or experiential encounters by healthcare workers. DATA EXTRACTION: Data was extracted by one author after piloting with another. STUDY APPRAISAL: Studies were assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). PRIMARY OUTCOME: The primary outcome extracted was the information source or professional experience encounter. ANALYSIS: Similar encounters were grouped together as single constructs. Our synthesis involved a mixed approach using the top-down logic of the Bliss Bibliographic Classification System (BC2) to generate classification categories and a bottom-up approach to develop descriptive codes (or “facets”) for each category, from the data. The generic terms of BC2 were customised by an iterative process of thematic content analysis. Facets were developed by using available theory and keeping in mind the pragmatic end use of the classification.

Results

Eighty studies were included from which 178 discreet knowledge encounters were extracted. Six classification categories were developed: what information or experience was encountered; how was the information or experience encountered; what was the mode of encounter; from whom did the information originate or with whom was the experience; how many participants were there; and where did the encounter take place. For each of these categories, relevant descriptive facets were identified.

Conclusions

We have sought to identify and classify all knowledge encounters, and we have developed a faceted description of key categories which will support richer descriptions and interrogations of knowledge encounters in healthcare research.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13012-017-0564-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Attitudes and perceptions of nephrology nurses towards dialysis modality selection: a survey study

Background

There is a paucity of information about the views of dialysis nurses towards dialysis modality selection, yet nurses often have the most direct contact time with patients. We conducted a survey to better understand nurses’ attitudes and perceptions, and hypothesized that nurses with different areas of expertise would have differences in opinions.

Methods

We administered an electronic survey to all dialysis/predialysis nurses (n = 129) at a large, tertiary care center. The survey included questions about preferred therapy - in-center hemodialysis (CHD), versus home dialysis (home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis) and ideal modality mix. Responses were compared between nurses with home dialysis and CHD experience.

Results

The survey response rate was 69%. Both nursing groups ranked patient caregivers and dialysis nurses as having the least impact on patient modality selection. For most patient characteristics (including age > 70 years and presence of multiple chronic illnesses), CHD nurses felt that CHD was somewhat or strongly preferred, while home dialysis nurses preferred a home modality (p < 0.001 for all characteristics studied). Similar differences in responses were noted for patient/system factors such as patient survival, cost to patients and nursing job security. Compared to CHD nurses, a higher proportion of home dialysis nurses felt that CHD was over-utilized (85% versus 58%, p = 0.024).

Conclusion

Dialysis nurses have prevailing views about modality selection that are strongly determined by their area of experience and expertise.

The health information practices of people living with chronic health conditions: Implications for health literacy

The health literacy concept is often limited to descriptions of a patient’s functional relationship with text. This description does not acknowledge the range of information sources that people draw from in order to make informed decision about their health and treatment. A socio-cultural understanding of the practice of health literacy and the construction of the health information landscape is described, and draws from two studies of people with two different but complex and life-threatening chronic health conditions: chronic kidney disease and human immunodeficiency virus. Health information is experienced by patients as a chronic health condition landscape, and develops from three information sources, namely epistemic, social and corporeal sources. Participants in both studies used activities that involved orienting and sharing activities to understand the landscape that was used to inform their decision making. These findings challenge the traditional conceptions of health literacy and suggest an approach that views the landscape of chronic illness as being socially, physically and contextually constructed. This suggests recasting health literacy away from a sole interest in skills and towards understanding how information practices facilitate people becoming health literate.

Exploring the information practices of people with end-stage kidney disease

This small exploratory study sought to understand how people with End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) experience the information environment and what information practices they employ in order to inform the decisions they make in relation to treatment and care. Using a constructivist methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with five people who were receiving haemodialysis in two small satellite dialysis units located in regional and rural communities in New South Wales, Australia. Thematic analysis revealed two types of patients. The first type appears to adopt a received view of information, who do not question their condition; and passively accept information. In the other type, patients were found to be engaged; they actively identified their information needs and quickly learned what that they needed to ask and who to ask. Knowing the information practices of people with ESKD is useful for nephrology nurses when providing patient education.