Journal of Research in Nursing

This paper is a report of a study of the ongoing support needs of individuals with long-term conditions who have attended self-management programmes.

Clinical research and policy developments have placed increased emphasis on self-management as a strategy for dealing with people with long-term conditions. These strategies have focused on a range of different interventions of which self-management programmes are one. Such programmes are often time limited, highly structured courses, which have been widely researched and shown to be effective. However, what happens to individuals after they have attended these programmes and what their ongoing support needs are, has received less attention.

An exploratory qualitative design using focus groups and telephone interviews was used to collect data. The sample consisted of 24 participants. Telephone interviews were offered to all participants to follow up on themes from the focus groups. In total three people participated in these. The data were collected between May and July 2011 and analysed using thematic content analysis.

Five themes were identified: (1) accessibility, (2) companionship, (3) being and feeling valued, (4) empowerment, and (5) the limits of the medical model.

To facilitate self-management, healthcare professionals need to understand the value of peer-to-peer interaction. Healthcare practitioners, as well as those who organise and deliver self-management programmes have an important role in signposting people with long-term conditions to services within local communities which can offer ongoing support.

To investigate the longitudinal effectiveness of a brief eating disorder training on primary care providers’ self-perceived knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding eating disorder screening and intervention.

We trained 45 primary care providers (including nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians) practicing in 10 medical sites and measured their self-perceived knowledge, skills and attitudes on eating disorder screening and intervention using a 23-item questionnaire prior to, 1 week and 6 months after the training.

The eating disorder knowledge score and eating disorder skill level score showed pretest to posttest gains that were associated with large effect sizes (d = 1.25 and 1.31, respectively). The significance and magnitude of effects carried over through the 6-month follow-up evaluation. Unlike the eating disorder knowledge and skill scores, there was no significant improvement in eating disorder attitudes from pretest to posttest or from pretest to the 6-month follow-up.

Findings show support for the effectiveness of a brief eating disorder training on primary care providers’ reported knowledge and skills for addressing eating disorders in their practice. These results underscore the importance of providing information to primary care providers on how they can more adequately screen and intervene with eating disorders, as part of primary care to their patients.

This paper reports on the development, implementation and evaluation of the Alcohol Intervention Training Program (AITP) designed to enhance nurses’ capacity to work with farming men and women who misuse alcohol.

In rural and regional areas where alcohol-related behaviours and problems are relatively elevated, nurses may be the key health professionals dealing with individuals who misuse alcohol. However, they are often ill-equipped to do this, have low confidence in their ability to do so, and perceive numerous barriers. Training is required for these nurses.

We developed the AITP to enhance nurses’ capacity to work with people with alcohol-related problems. The data were collected during 2010. An intervention group of 15 rural nurses completed the AITP. Nurses’ perceived barriers, attitudes, and perceived performance in working with clients with alcohol problems, and the frequency of engaging with this client group were evaluated. Scores on these measures were compared to those of a control group of 17 nurses’ pre-treatment, post-treatment and at 3-month follow-up.

Participation in the AITP resulted in initial improvements in attitudes to working with alcohol problems, but no change in perceived barriers to doing so. The level of engagement with clients having alcohol-related problems increased, as did perceptions of work performance.

The AITP enhances the ability of rural nurses to address the alcohol and associated health issues of clients in rural and regional areas. However, the program needs refinement and further evaluation.

This UK study aimed to generate new ideas about training strategies for healthcare staff caring for people with dementia in the acute hospital setting.

A review of related literature exposed topical debate regarding current educational deficits, yet revealed few examples of the implementation of training initiatives for practising healthcare professionals.

A descriptive qualitative approach was used.

Data were generated using two focus groups comprised of Staff Nurses (four) and Healthcare Assistants (three) working in a mixed gender acute elderly care unit in the North of England. Dialogues explored individuals’ experiences of delivering care to people with dementia hospitalised with physical illnesses and, usefully, their thoughts about learning in the workplace.

Four broad categories emerged from transcript-based analysis: learning about dementia; learning about the person; learning from each other; learning from specialists. Specific recommendations included the improvement of staff preparedness through fundamental training, improved flow of information about individuals, dementia-specialist input for situation-based advice, and structured opportunities to reflect on practice.

The National Dementia Strategy for England emphasises the pressing need to improve care for people with dementia when they are admitted to hospital with physical illness, and highlights the importance of staff education in contributing to improved care. This study provides an insider view from a potential target population of such healthcare providers regarding their perceived educational needs.

The results of this study point the way forward to practical and achievable ways of increasing and improving knowledge about dementia, and enhancing skills in caring for people who are cognitively impaired, among general hospital staff.