Nordic Journal of Nursing Research

This study evaluated the impact of nursing interventions on the quality of life of patients. After an extensive literature review that yielded 46 studies, research synthesis techniques were applied. Overall, strategies such as counseling, patient education, cognitive-behavioral techniques, and exercise were successful in increasing the quality of life of treated groups. Despite this finding, there are few studies that target quality of life as a major outcome measure of nursing care.

In this study eleven items concerning wants and needs of severely mentally ill persons were compared with estimations of the same items made by professional caregivers in psychiatric care and social welfare services. A questionnaire with ten-point Likert scales was distributed to 205 participants, 65 professionals within psychiatric care, 97 professionals within social welfare services and 43 severely mentally ill persons. The Likert scales dealt with living conditions, daily activities, nursing interventions and social welfare services. The severely mentally ill persons scored their wants and needs and professional caregivers estimated the importance of every item concerning the same issues. Professional caregivers made quite similar estimations irrespective of their professional or organizational belonging. They did, however, differ quite a lot from the wants and needs made by the severe mentally ill persons themselves.

This article is based on Arja Narinen's dissertation, Present content of the nurse manager's work and potential future changes in it: a study of the perceptions of nurse managers and directors of nursing who work in primary health care and specialised clinical care, University of Helsinki, 2000.

Concepts are among the cornerstones of a science, and concept development is a necessary prerequisite for meaningful research. In caring science concept analysis belongs to basic research, and should, first and foremost respond to the 'what'-questions. The purpose of this article is to present and discuss the semantic analysing method of P. Koort, and to argue for the usefulness of semantic analysis in theory development. The purpose also is to illustrate the method through analysing the concept of art. The semantic analysing method, developed by P. Koort in the early seventies, consists of an etymological explanation and explanation of concepts of family — a discrimination analysis. The semantic analysis shows that art has the greatest degree of synonymy with dexterity (71%), aesthetics (50%), skill (50%) and proficiency (50%). The discussion of the results also shows that the concept of skill is related to the levels of doing, being and becoming in helping the suffering patient, and that the caregiver should have competence in and be prepared for a 'journey' with the patient on all those levels. Without a semantic analysis the concept of skill's relationship to these different levels would have been difficult to expose. The concept of proficiency has also gained a deeper meaning during the analysis.

Therapeutic massage is a rhythmic and sensitive form of touch that is assumed to have effects on symptom relief psychological as well as physiological. The purpose of this study was to explore personnels' perception of the use of therapeutic massage in palliative care and what kind of effects it might have on the patients.

Ten personnel, actively using therapeutic massage in clinical practice, were interviewed. A specific record for the documentation of therapeutic massage was developed. In total 103 patients received therapeutic massage at 197 different occasions. In average each massage took 20 minutes. Massage was given principally on leg, foot or hand.

The result showed that therapeutic massage was an excellent tool for communicating and becoming close to the patients. By using therapeutic massage it was possible to create relationships with patients the nurses otherwise might have difficulty to get close contact with. The method was often used as a complement to pharmaceutical treatment of symptoms especially worry, pain and sleeplessness. Therapeutic massage enriches the content of nursing care. The primary obstacle to the usage of therapeutic massage was lack of time.

Family presence during CPR The experiences and attitudes of code team members

Internationally, but hardly in Scandinavia, the presence of family members during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been discussed. With reference to such situations, the aim of this study was to survey the experiences and attitudes of Swedish code team members. A questionnaire was distributed to 107 nurses and 107 physicians in the departments of anaesthesiology, cardiology, and accident and emergency. The response rate was 82%. A small minority had heard family members ask permission to be present during CPR. More than half of the respondents were of the opinion that some family members want to be present, while one fourth believed that none of them wants it. If family members express a wish to be present, less than half of the respondents answered that the wish 〈Always〉 or 〈Often〉 should be respected. The nurses were a little more permissive than the physicians were. Many, but not all respondents thought that the family members would perceive presence as a disagreeable experience. With such differences in attitudes, general recommendations are difficult to justify. More empirical knowledge about the experiences and attitudes of family members, who have been present during CPR, as well as potential CPR patients, is also needed.

The main issue is the connection between physical outfit and meaning in life after treatment in a stroke unit. The purpose is to provide knowledge about patients in the first period after getting the disease. Such information can be valuable when it comes to understanding the situation of elderly patients with stroke after they have left the hospital or stroke unit. 70 woman and men — aged between 55 and 95 participated, interviews were carried out and the instruments Barthel Index (ADL), Purpose in Life (PIL), and research questions were used. The main variables are activities of daily living and purpose in life. (The connection between physical outfit and meaning in life). The patients show a weakening of physical outfit and altogether 43 patients had an unsure score or reduced meaning in life. The results show a positive connection between physical outfit and meaning in life. There are gender differences that are clear, more men get stroke and they are also clinically more vulnerable (stronger connections between the variables). Age makes no difference regarding the connection between ADL and PIL. There are no gender difference in PIL and ADL. There is a significant difference in ADL between young and old. The younger report higher ADL score. There is, however, no difference in PIL score between old and young. These findings are important for nursing practice and are followed up by theories proposed by Watson and Eriksson.

The development of nursing as a 'métier' and the consequences this development may have for the legitimacy of the nursing profession, is focus for this article. Did nursing's pioneers have greater 'professional' independence than we do today? Is nursing about to become an instruction-based undertaking? If so, how will this affect nursing as an autogenous profession? Two claims will be discussed. One concerns the relationship between attitudes, professionalism, and learning: Today we tend to take wished-for professional attitudes for granted; one assumes that everyone has coinciding attitudes. This may lead to professional stagnation. My other contention is that there seems to be a misconception as to what the philosophy of care may offer as source for professional thought. From a one-sided and narrow-minded viewpoint this philosophy may be construed as 'relational ethics'. It is so much more. Among other things it may contribute to greater insight into and better utilisation of knowledge in the practical setting, something that may enhance our understanding and help us make action choices of a more professional character.

The recent reforms in Norwegian higher education renew the focus on relevance and quality in education and on the importance of the learning environments for the students. This is particularly important in higher education in the professions, as its major task is to prepare students for future work as professionals in various fields — in other words to develop a professional competence (Rolf et al. 1993). Gaining insight into professional competence and how and to what degree current instructional strategies in professional higher education afford professional competence, becomes imperative — based on empirical data.

In Norway, nursing and engineering education use different approaches when preparing students for practice. To what extent do each education develop relevant preparation for work and professional competence? In a field study, I have followed, interviewed and observed two groups of students of nursing and engineering over an extended period in their final year of education. This paper focuses on and reports from the students' perspective: What do students view as characteristics of professional competence? And, in what sense and to what degree have students, in their own views, experienced that the cultures of learning (knowledge and learning processes) of their education have facilitated the development of professional competence? A descriptive and comparative analysis of the two groups of students' views and experiences is given in the paper.