Autonomy in stroke rehabilitation: the perceptions of care providers in nursing homes

Ethical issues in the care of patients with stroke: A scoping review

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim was to identify and analyse the ethical issues in the care of patients with stroke (PwS). The goal was to understand the nature of the existing knowledge on the topic and to identify whether there are ethical issues specific to the care of PwS.

BACKGROUND

Stroke is a disease with possible multiple effects on the patient's overall condition and experienced ethical issues in the care. Additionally, stroke impacts the life of the significant other. For health professionals, the care of PwS is challenging at different stages of the care process. The care of stroke includes several ethically sensitive situations from the perspectives of all participants.

DESIGN

Scoping review.

METHODS

The review was conducted following the five-stage methodological framework of Arksey and O'Malley (2005). The literature search was conducted in several electronic databases and complemented with a manual search, resulting in 15 reviewed articles. The analysis was conducted by charting descriptive numerical data and by content analysis of the narrative representations.

RESULTS

The studies focused on hospital or rehabilitation contexts and a high number of studies had a qualitative approach. Three main themes were identifiable: "decision-making as an ethically challenging act," "care process-specific ethical issues" and "environmental ethical issues."

CONCLUSIONS

Ethical issues occur at different stages of the care process of PwS and from the viewpoints of all those involved. However, not all the recognised ethical issues were stroke specific. As the number of the reviewed articles was limited, more research is needed for a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Individual health professionals may use the results in observing their own action from an ethical perspective and to deepen the ethical understanding of the care of PwS. In health care organisations, the results may be used in developing the ethical quality of care.

Patients' views on their decision making during inpatient rehabilitation after newly acquired spinal cord injury-A qualitative interview-based study

Introduction

Involving patients in decision making is a legal requirement in many countries, associated with better rehabilitation outcomes, but not easily accomplished during initial inpatient rehabilitation after severe trauma. Providing medical treatment according to the principles of shared decision making is challenging as a point in case for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Objectives

The aim of this study was to retrospectively explore the patients’ views on their participation in decision making during their first inpatient rehabilitation after onset of SCI, in order to optimize treatment concepts.

Methods

A total of 22 participants with SCI were interviewed in‐depth using a semi‐structured interview scheme between 6 months and 35 years post‐onset. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed with the Mayring method for qualitative content analysis.

Results

Participants experienced a substantially reduced ability to participate in decision making during the early phase after SCI. They perceived physical, psychological and environmental factors to have impacted upon this ability. Patients mentioned regaining their ability to make decisions was an important goal during their first rehabilitation. Receiving adequate information in an understandable and personalized way was a prerequisite to achieve this goal. Other important factors included medical and psychological condition, personal engagement, time and dialogue with peers.

Conclusion

During the initial rehabilitation of patients with SCI, professionals need to deal with the discrepancy between the obligation to respect a patient's autonomy and their diminished ability for decision making.

[Strategies for self-management support by patients with stroke: integrative review]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze strategies for self-management support by patients with stroke in the light of the methodology of the five A's (ask, advice, assess, assist and arrange).

METHODS

Integrative review conducted at the following databases CINAHL, SCOPUS, PubMed, Cochrane and LILACS.

RESULTS

A total of 43 studies published between 2000 and 2013 comprised the study sample. All proposed actions in the five A's methodology and others were included. We highlight the Assist and Arrange, in which we added actions, especially with regard to the use of technological resources and joint monitoring between patients, families and professionals. No study included all five A's, which suggests that the actions of supported self-management are developed in a fragmented way.

CONCLUSION

The use of five A's strategy provides guidelines for better management of patients with stroke with lower cost and higher effectiveness.

We need to talk about purpose: a critical interpretive synthesis of health and social care professionals' approaches to self-management support for people with long-term conditions

BACKGROUND

Health policies internationally advocate 'support for self-management', but it is not clear how the promise of the concept can be fulfilled.

OBJECTIVE

To synthesize research into professional practitioners' perspectives, practices and experiences to help inform a reconceptualization of support for self-management.

DESIGN

Critical interpretive synthesis using systematic searches of literature published 2000-2014.

FINDINGS

We summarized key insights from 164 relevant papers in an annotated bibliography. The literature illustrates striking variations in approaches to support for self-management and interpretations of associated concepts. We focused particularly on the somewhat neglected question of the purpose of support. We suggest that this can illuminate and explain important differences between narrower and broader approaches. Narrower approaches support people to manage their condition(s) well in terms of disease control. This purpose can underpin more hierarchical practitioner-patient communication and more limited views of patient empowerment. It is often associated with experiences of failure and frustration. Broader approaches support people to manage well with their condition(s). They can keep work on disease control in perspective as attention focuses on what matters to people and how they can be supported to shape their own lives. Broader approaches are currently less evident in practice.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Broader approaches seem necessary to fulfil the promise of support for self-management, especially for patient empowerment. A commitment to enable people to live well with long-term conditions could provide a coherent basis for the forms and outcomes of support that policies aspire to. The implications of such a commitment need further attention.

Independence: An Analysis of a Complex and Core Construct in Occupational Therapy

Introduction:

Independence is a core concept in occupational therapy, but there is little consensus within the profession upon a universal definition. The present study employed a critical interpretive synthesis to examine two fundamental research questions: ‘How is independence conceptualised in quantitative and qualitative research within occupational therapy?’ and ‘How does the term “independence”, in its present use, critically impact occupational therapy policy and practice?’

Method:

Articles pertaining to occupational therapy and contributing to the definition of independence within the profession were examined. Three successive levels of coding — open, axial and selective — were used to analyse 19 final articles.

Findings:

From the literature, nine definition themes emerged: function, autonomy and competence, control, context, culture, environment, personal attributes and safety. These themes were then organised into three categories: personal factors, environmental factors and continuum, which were synthesised together to create a model that addresses all factors critical to the composition of independence. In addition, four clinical themes developed: goal of occupational therapy, client-therapist relationship, variable definitions in occupational therapy practice and limitations of present practice.

Conclusion:

Through the formalisation of the integral components of independence, this study enables a standardised foundation for the examination of this core concept across the profession.

Perceived autonomy and self-care resources among senior center users

Personal autonomy-the ability to make freely self-directed choices in one's life-is considered critical to an older person's quality of life. Informed by model and role-modeling nursing theory, this descriptive, correlational study examined the relationship of perceived enactment of autonomy to self-care resources, both internal (age, race, functional ability) and external (social support, living arrangements, community-based service utilization, and service satisfaction) among 120 older adults from 6 Manhattan senior centers. Participants demonstrated positive perceived autonomy. Study participants used a variety of community-based services, and their satisfaction with the services was significantly linked to autonomy. Using multiple linear regression model, the only significant predictors of perceived autonomy were race (white > nonwhite), service satisfaction, and social support. Nursing strategies such as providing information that promotes informed decision making and encouraging independence, as well as working collaboratively with members of an older persons' social network, can enhance an older persons' autonomy.

Strategies for autonomy used by people with cervical spinal cord injury: a qualitative study

PURPOSE

To identify strategies used by people with high cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) to function autonomously. A multidimensional concept of autonomy was used, with four dimensions: independence, self-determination, participation and identification.

METHODS

Qualitative methods were used, involving literature study and semi-structured interviews with eight individuals with high SCI who had been discharged from the rehabilitation centre for several years and were members of a sports club.

RESULTS

Strategies for independence included making independent functioning a personal challenge and learning from others with SCI. Strategies for self-determination included keeping oneself informed, setting personal goals and being assertive. Strategies for participation were making challenges out of barriers, planning and organizing, asking and accepting help, and dealing with reactions from others. Strategies for identification involved taking life as it comes and focussing on positive aspects of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Different strategies are necessary for different dimensions of autonomy. Some strategies seem contradictory in terms of their effects on different dimensions of autonomy. Patients can be made aware of strategies for autonomy during the rehabilitation phase.

Supporting stroke patients' autonomy during rehabilitation

In a qualitative study, 22 stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation in three nursing homes were interviewed about constraints on and improvements in their autonomy and about approaches of health professionals regarding autonomy. The data were analysed using grounded theory, with a particular focus on the process of regaining autonomy. An approach by the health professionals that was responsive to changes in the patients' autonomy was found to be helpful for restoration of their autonomy. Two patterns in health professionals' approach appeared to be facilitatory: (1) from full support on admission through moderate support and supervision, to reduced supervision at discharge; and (2) from paternalism on admission through partial paternalism (regarding treatment) to shared decision making at discharge. The approach experienced by the patients did not always match their desires regarding their autonomy. Support and supervision were reduced over time, but paternalism was often continued too long. Additionally, the patients experienced a lack of information. Tailoring interventions to patients' progress in autonomy would stimulate their active participation in rehabilitation and in decision making, and would improve patients' preparation for autonomous living after discharge.

Ethics in nursing homes: Experience and casuistry

The purpose of the study was to further explore the methods that nurses use to solve ethically difficult care situations in nursing homes while the aim of this article was to present a model for nursing practice in such situations. Fourteen nurses from three nursing homes in Norway were observed and interviewed in order to discern the strategies they used to deal with ethically difficult care situations. To analyse this information, we used a constant comparative method until a grounded theory emerged. The nurses' principal strategy was to apply earlier experiences while striving for the best outcome for the elderly patients. This article discusses this strategy and compares it to a theory of ethics called casuistry. We suggest that by using the method of experiences combined with casuistry in a more systematic way, nurses can develop acceptable solutions for difficult care situations in nursing homes.