Palliative care nurse consultants in Melbourne: a snapshot of their clinical role

The Specialist Palliative Care Nurses' in an Italian Hospital: role, competences, and activities

Background and aim of the work:

Many authors tried to clarify the palliative care nurses’ role, overall in the home care setting, but little is known in different settings of care. We aim to present a Specialist profile of palliative care (PC) nurses in an Italian hospital-based Palliative Care Unit.

Methods:

With an organizational case study approach, we conducted a literature review on PC nurse’s role, and we presented the Specialist PC nurses’ profile, describing competences and key related activities.

Results:

Our specialist profile highlights that clinical activities are similar to the experiences described in the literature (symptom assessment and management, communication, interprofessional work), while training and research activities are new fields of interest that it’s important to explore and promote, most of all in our country.

Conclusions:

Sustaining the flexibility of the role, being recognized by colleagues and keeping the three dimensions connected are the major challenges: drawing up a specialist palliative care nurses’ profile can help the team to better define the role framework in an interdisciplinary context.

Sensory processing disorder: Perceptions on the clinical role of advanced psychiatric nurses

Background

No description of the clinical role of the advanced psychiatric nurse in the management of children with sensory processing disorder could be found for the South African context. This is a loss in clinical nursing practice with regard to diagnosis, treatment and research.

Aim

To explore and clarify the perceptions of healthcare professionals in South Africa on the clinical role of the advanced psychiatric nurse in sensory processing disorder to provide a description of this role.

Setting

The research was conducted by inviting registered healthcare professionals practicing in South Africa to complete several rounds of an on-line survey.

Methods

An explorative and descriptive design was used. Purposive sampling was used to identify an initial sample of healthcare professionals, followed by snowball sampling. The Delphi technique was implemented with three sequential rounds, gathering data on the perceptions of the healthcare professionals regarding the clinical role of the advanced psychiatric nurse in sensory processing disorder.

Results

The following main themes crystallised from the data - (1) Specialised training of the advanced psychiatric nurse (APN) on sensory processing disorder; (2) Interventions carried out by the APN with regard to sensory processing disorder; (3) Adequate support to the family with regard to sensory processing disorder; and (4) Referral of a child with sensory processing disorder.

Conclusion

The study indicates that the healthcare professionals who are experts in delivering healthcare to children with sensory processing disorder agree that the APN with additional training in this condition has a clinical role to play in rendering healthcare to these healthcare users. A preliminary clinical role description could be formulated. Recommendations for nursing practice, nursing education and further research were formulated.

The role and function of the palliative care nurse practitioner in Israel

BACKGROUND

Research studies emphasise the importance of the nurse practitioner (NP) role in the continuum of care, patient health outcomes, and the formation of a positive work environment. There are different reports about the extent of care delivered by the nurse practitioner in different fields of expertise and in different countries.

AIM

To present the characteristics of nurse practitioners in Israel, the extent of the role and practice, activities, role responsibilities, and job satisfaction.

METHODS

A descriptive computerised survey targeted palliative care nurse practitioners (PCNP). The study included nurses from all regions and districts in Israel, regardless of the nurses' health maintenance organisation or hospital affiliations.

RESULTS

NPs reported performing fewer frequent physical assessments, medication prescriptions issued, and lab and imaging referrals.

CONCLUSION

The complexity of the implementation of the NP role requires prior planning for role introduction, mentorship for the NP, and understanding of the interface between the NP and other professional staff.

Clinical role of the nurse: concept analysis

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To identify the attributes of the concept 'clinical role of the nurse' in the literature.

BACKGROUND

The concept of nurses' clinical role is frequently mentioned in literature, but hardly explored in conceptual terms. This has implications for nursing practice and education.

DESIGN

Qualitative and descriptive study, which corresponds to the first phase in the concept development of the qualitative concept analysis method - identification of concept attributes.

METHODS

The critical literature analysis method was used to identify the antecedents, defining attributes and consequences of the nurse's clinical role. A systematic literature search was undertaken in International Literature in Health Sciences, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences.

RESULTS

The clinical role was shown to be a process of complex interaction between nurse and patient, with critical thinking, informed experience and a sense of clinical autonomy as its antecedents. Consequences of nurses' clinical role include transformations in the organisation and process of nursing practice. A theoretical proposal was elaborated for the concept of the clinical role of the nurse, identifying the defining attributes, antecedents and consequences.

CONCLUSIONS

The clinical role of the nurse concept that was developed represents innovative evidence on the theme. Nevertheless, a deeper understanding of nurses' clinical role is needed, as well as refinement of its conceptual components. This study should be integrated into a field research project, designed to illuminate how nurses manifest and articulate the concept in clinical practice.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Knowledge of clinical role attributes, associated with nursing competencies, can contribute to reflection on the dimensions involved in nursing practice and inform not only teaching and professional practice, but also health policies.

The palliative care clinical nurse consultant: an essential link

This study describes the role of acute hospital palliative care nurse consultants and makes recommendations about future directions for the role development of this role. While the palliative care nurse consultant role is accepted in the acute setting there is little evidence or literature about what contributes to the success of this role. A three-phase study was undertaken to describe the role of palliative care nurse consultants in acute hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. The first phase of the three-phase study, involving in-depth qualitative interviews with the palliative care nurse consultants, is reported in this article. Using open-ended semi-structured questions, 10 palliative care nurse consultants were interviewed using open-ended questions about aspects of their role and the interviews were thematically analysed. Four main themes were identified that clarified the role; being the internal link; being the lynch pin; being responsive and being challenged. The palliative care nurse consultants were the first point of introduction to palliative care and thus they saw a significant role in introducing the concept of palliative care to those requiring palliative care, their families and others. They are an important link between the settings of care required by people accessing palliative care-acute, in-patient palliative care and community care. The palliative care nurse consultants saw themselves in leadership positions that in some ways defy boundaries, because of the inherent complexity and diversity of the role. The palliative care nurse consultants' role appears to be pivotal in providing expert advice to staff and people requiring palliative care, and connecting palliative care services both within the hospital and to external services.