Nordic Journal of Nursing Research

The purpose of this study was to examine how young individuals interpret the quality of life concept and to describe some aspects of health promotion. The present study was conducted in September, 2001. One hundred and twenty-six young individuals (119 females and 7 males) answered the question «What does Quality of Life mean to you?» after visiting an adolescent health centre for young people in Sweden. The data collection consisted of written accounts (from 126 informants), which were transcribed and formed as a whole. The content analysis method was used when analysing the qualitative data. Farquhar's taxonomy was used as a framework for organizing the different categories. Ten categories were presented under four main types: global definitions- well-being and happiness; focused definitions- love and development; combination definitions- respect and friendship and component definitions- education, occupation, economy and sense of security. The findings illustrate the most important perceptions of young people regarding the quality of life concept (see fig 1). Nurses can help these young individuals by providing support and guidance when they choose to discuss their problems, and by doing so, can help to prevent future health problems.

Difficulties in a family's psychosocial situation during the period of infancy are associated with mental problems and behavioural disorders in children. The aim of the study was to identify the extent and type of psychosocial factors in families with infants, including social aspects, mental problems and substance abuse as well as circumstances surrounding the birth. All infants born between March 1st 2000 and August 31st 2001 whose parents had adequate knowledge of the Swedish language (N=576) were included. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Psychosocial risk factors were found in the families of 24% of infants whose mothers were of Swedish origin and in the families of 58% of infants whose mothers were of foreign origin. The most common risk factors were: unemployment, premature birth, and one or both parents exhibiting signs of great worry and anxiety in relation to their child and parenthood. The study also shows that mental problems and substance abuse were only present in a very small number of parents. Furthermore, the study indicates the need to review the strategies used within child health care to identify families at risk of developing mental problems and behavioural disorders as a result of dysfunctionality in their psychosocial situation during their child's infancy. It is important to study the professional network surrounding families in more detail, both in order to detect psychosocial risk factors and to develop and evaluate interventions.

Services tailored to the wishes and needs of children have seldom been studied. Consumers should all be included in the development of health care services. The purpose of this study is to describe childrens views on their own hospitalization at a child psychiatric ward. The research data were collected from 29 children, who were interviewed using a structured questionnaire, including open-ended questions. The childrens views on hospitalization revealed that they felt guilt, experienced difficulties at home and at school, and recognized their own behaviour as a reason for hospitalization. After spending at least one month at the ward the children said they could handle better with homework, school, other children and in everyday life situations. The children felt unconfident about their relationships with other children, and they wished being helped more in the social relationships with others. The children need time and a sensitive collaborative approach, which can address the child's individuality and family situation. Hearing the voice of children can reveal new knowledge on hospitalization. Research on children could use flexible research methods, and pay special attention to the child's developmental stage when planning the research methods.

The aim of the study was to investigate the acuity of school nurses regarding their opportunities and limitations to improve eating habits in 11–16 year old Danish schoolchildren, as it is well known that this age group often demonstrates unhealthy habits. The study's methodology was qualitative, exploratory and descriptive and took the form of a semi-structured interview investigation involving eight school nurses from four municipalities in the Copenhagen metropolitan area. The interviews were analysed using hermeneutic interpretation principles and were categorized with the assistance of a model inspired by the Health Belief Model. The school nurses' perceptions of their opportunities for action included: health-related discussions with children; empowering children to be responsible for their own health; and ensuring that healthy meals were made available in schools. They saw the limitations as being: group pressure; parents being too busy and unsupportive, as well as the absence of goal setting, common viewpoints and planning processes with teachers. As a result a conflict exists between what the school nurses want to achieve and what they currently are achieving.

The study addresses the following two questions: 1) Do the patients and staff at psychiatric hospitals hold similar or divergent views with regard to what is good care? 2) Does gender influence how patients and staff at psychiatric hospitals rank the importance of what is good care? The study was carried out by a survey design. Four hospitals in western Norway with a total of 65 patients and 79 staff took part. A revised version of the Care Q instrument was used.

The results show that both groups rank human interaction between patients and staff as the most important care procedure. Physical nursing and monitoring functions were considered the least important care procedures by both groups. The results also show a statistically significant difference between patients and staff with regard to 15 out of 50 individual statements. As an example the statement «is honest about your mental problems», and «gets to know the patient as an individual person» was ranked as much more important by patients than by staff. The study also indicates that the gender of patients and staff may influence how they rank the importance of care procedures.

In society of today there are great demands on young women concerning education, work and social life and also concerning health and beauty expectations. The aim of this study was to compare 26-year old Swedish women studied at intervals of twenty years concerning stress in daily life and self-rated health. The participants in 2002 (n=386) answered the same questionnaire that was used twenty years ago in a prospective population study (n=85). The result showed no difference in self-rated health between the two groups. However, women in 2002 reported more stress and health complaints such as exhaustion, sleep disorders, restlessness and difficulty concentration. They also reported low energy level and bad appetite. This discomfort must be interpreted with caution and not necessarily as ill health. However, it is important to take the experience of stress in daily life and the increase in health complaints into consideration even if women today rate their health as good in order to avoid lasting imbalance and thereby future diseases.

The article presents new RNs' view of their nursing education. 326 nurses answered an open question about the educating one year after being RN. At this stage of their careers the nurses emphasize the view that their education should have prepared them better for the reality that awaits them. This can be done by placing more emphasis on scientific knowledge and practical nursing skills, and less on so-called «airy subjects» and irrelevant theoretical knowledge. We discus if responses such as these overshadow problems that rather challenge the nursing colleges pedagogically. How is it that the scientific subjects are not being learned? How do we facilitate the learning of non-concrete subjects so that their practical relevance is revealed? What should the proportion be between knowledge that changes quickly and knowledge that is stable over time, which is fundamental and transferable to new situations and to other contexts? And what should our position be with regard to contextually dependent knowledge? The duration of nursing education is also a theme of discussion. Nursing education will never be able to prepare nurses with fully adequate competency in all general and specialized fields in the health services. The debate about the division of labour between learning during education and learning on the job is revived.

The objectives of this thesis were to describe and understand the phenomena of mania and suffering. This ambition made it necessary to acquire systematic patients' knowledge of the phenomena of mania and suffering. This study is based on qualitative interviews and hermeneutic analysis and interpretation of the experiences of mania as a phenomenon and suffering of 11 former patients. Patients' experiences of mania are characterised by strong emotions, engagement and vitality. Mania is a powerful psychological and physical experience of being alive or of feeling paralysed by self-destructive forces. The experiences fluctuate between elated mastery and paralysed anxious isolation. The experiences of having, or not having, of being deprived of control over one's own life, and not being respected by others, are central dimensions of mania. Patients do not experience that the suffering limits their ability to enjoy life, have good self-esteem or good relationships. The family is a very important but ambiguous supporter for the patient. Relationships with friends, fellow patients and God provide relief and strength.

This is a retrospective, pilot study of patients suffering from severe heart failure. The participants (n=43) were living in their own homes and treated by a multidisciplinary, home-based team for palliative care. Patients suffering from severe heart failure were a new group connected to this care organisation. The aims were to examine how the diagnosis was verified and to scrutinize the underlining cardiovascular disorders and the medical treatment. Furthermore to investigate the frequency of hospital readmission after vs. before the patients' connection to the homecare team. The majority (81 %) of the patients had had their diagnoses verified with echocardiography. Most of the patients (88 %) were treated with an ACE-inhibitor or an angiotensin-II -receptor blocker, while 44 % of the patients were prescribed a betareceptor-blocker. We found that patients were readmitted to the hospital significantly less often, after connection to the palliative homecare team. The hospital readmission decreased during 0–90 days by −63 % and in 0–180 days by −58 %.

By this article we intend to share the knowledge and experience Fredericia Hospital has gained from working with a nursing strategy. During recent years an increasing need for creating a quality culture of nursing arose internationally and nationally. Fredericia Hospital did not always find coherency in the development of nursing, which often caused frustration among staff. Therefore it was decided to develop a nursing strategy. Development of the strategy was based on a qualitative method. Data were collected from focus interviews, and informants were selected and grouped according to P. Benner's competency development theory. The steering group worked with SWOT analyses on which the final development and implementation of the strategy is based.

The strategy was elaborated with formulation of visions, goals and action plans that have now been implemented. The article includes a number of recommendations that might be applied for similar projects. The strategy was evaluated during the progress of the project, and all evaluated data fully satisfy the intended goals.

Elaboration and implementation of a nursing strategy can systematize the development of nursing. It has been a most positive experience for all persons involved.

Missing data is a pragmatic fact that must be investigated and not a disaster to be mitigated. It is a property of the population to which we seek to generalize and can cause problems not only through its impact on the sample size available for analysis but also through its potential hidden biases. Making imputations without first analysing the randomness of the missing responses can even be worse than doing nothing, so care is needed while imputing missing values. This paper reflects on how to prevent, analyse and handle missing data and how effects of imputation can be checked.

Successful cancer-pain management is based on attention to discover and evaluate pain. There is evidence that pain is poorly assessed and documented by clinicians. To overcome this problem, major efforts have focused on pain education. However, it has been shown that isolated education had a minimal impact on changing practice. In this study the whole staff on an oncology outpatients ward was educated at the same time in pain management. Local guidelines with instructions on how to care for patients with pain was created. The results from this study showed that after education the staff significantly asked more patients suffering from pain about pain. A tendency to better documentation about pain was found after the education. These results indicate that education to the whole staff at the same time and local guidelines are a favourable way to get a higher attention to patients with pain.