Vol 9 No 4 (2022): Autumn

Perspective Piece(s)

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 363 | views: 383 | pages: 261-266

    Background & Aim: Low-value care is care that has little or no benefit to the patient, with the potential to cause harm and incur unnecessary spending to patients and society or waste limited resources. This paper's aim is to reflect on how love and respect for patients are valuable in mitigating the occurrence of low-value care. 
    Methods & Materials: A descriptive theoretical and empirical literature analysis was employed to reflect on the impacts of love and respect for a patient on mitigating low-value care.
    Results: The feelings of uncomfortable atmosphere, dissatisfaction, and distrust by the patient due to a deficit of love and respect for the patient could lead to a high rate of patronizing low-value care from unprofessional health workers, which could lead to the occurrence of complications. However, when care is based on optimal love and respect, it eventually brings about patients' satisfaction and continued utilization of high-value care choices from experienced health professionals.
    Conclusion: It is imperative to apply love and respect for patients in healthcare practices; otherwise, a surge in the occurrence of low-value care caused by patients' requests and expectations is possible. There is a need for a deep understanding of low-value care in nursing through research studies. 

Review Article(s)

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 641 | views: 779 | pages: 267-278

    Background & Aim: While hard skills refer to the technical ability and factual knowledge needed to do a job, soft skills allow you to use your technical abilities and knowledge more effectively. These two skills are complementary, but soft skills are prerequisites in every profession where human interaction and teamwork are needed to succeed. This integrative review examined the research on soft skills in nursing and made recommendations based on its findings.
    Methods & Materials: Whittemore and Knafl’s five-step integrative review framework was carried out using four electronic databases. These databases are the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, Medline on EBSCOhost, and Scopus. Searches were conducted using keywords: soft skills, non-technical skills, nursing skills, nursing art, and aesthetics. The literature search explored no date ranges, and only the English language was considered. Full texts of relevant studies in both qualitative and quantitative research were retrieved. Critical appraisal was undertaken, and the findings of the relevant studies were analyzed using thematic analysis.
    Results: Seventeen studies were included, and the findings suggest an urgent need for soft skills in the nursing domain. Five themes emerged: the meaning of soft skills in nursing, the benefits of soft skills in nursing; the need for soft skills in nursing; the incorporation of soft skills into nursing practice; and the relationship between hard and soft skills. Findings show soft skills are the cognitive and social capabilities that complete the technical skills of the nurse.
    Conclusion: Incorporating soft skills into the nursing curriculum should be a resuscitative call that requires immediate attention.

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 401 | views: 297 | pages: 279-292

    Background & Aim: A spinal cord injury is a critical event that results in significant life changes for the injured person and the family and caregiver. This study aimed to identify and describe the primary needs of family members that are caregivers of patients with spinal cord injuries.
    Methods & Materials: An integrative review study was conducted. The studies were collected from five databases, with no time limit until December 2021: MEDLINE® (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), CINAHL® (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, SCOPUS, SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online). The inclusion criteria for the accessed literature were: adults over 18 years of age who are caregivers of individuals with spinal cord injury; encompassing all the existing needs experienced by caregivers; including care recipients over 18 years old and who spinal cord injury patients are; and primary studies published without time limit. We performed a synthesis of the contents with an a priori categorization.
    Results: The search resulted in 1018 bibliographic records. A total of 17 articles published between 1981 and 2020 that met the inclusion criteria were selected. The priority categorization process resulted from the study by Fernandes and Angelo in the following five thematic areas: the transition to care, being responsible for everything, the importance of support, access to formal support, communication, and information processes.
    Conclusion: Family caregivers are important to support people with spinal cord injury, and they present numerous needs that should be the target of intervention by nurses at all stages of rehabilitation.

Original Article(s)

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 324 | views: 282 | pages: 293-302

    Background & Aim: Nurses play a vital role in discharge planning, especially for patients with colorectal cancer who require complex post-treatment care. However, there is a limited understanding of nurses’ discharge planning practice in oncology settings. This study aimed to examine current discharge planning practices for patients with colorectal cancer among oncology nurses in Thailand and associated factors.
    Methods & Materials: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted between October and November 2020. Oncology nurses involved in colorectal cancer care were recruited across Thailand via Facebook and the Line application. A convenience and snowball sample of 206 nurses completed the online survey. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used for data analysis.
    Results: The discharge planning activity with the lowest mean score was related to sharing discharge planning summaries and/or care plans with other healthcare facilities (M = 3.00, SD= 1.32), followed by providing information about returning to work (M= 3.06, SD= 1.28), financial resources (M= 3.12, SD= 1.26), and disease (M= 3.13, SD= 1.25). Factors significantly associated with discharge planning practice included nursing education levels, specialty training in cancer care, and experience in colorectal cancer care.
    Conclusion: Despite the availability of discharge planning guidelines, Thai oncology nurses did not perform the full scope of discharge planning activities required for patients with colorectal cancer. Additional strategies, resources, and support systems should be established to facilitate nurses’ performance of the full scope of their discharge planning practice in oncology settings. Moreover, our results suggest the need for additional education and training in the form of enhanced curriculums and continuing education seminars addressing cancer care to advance nurses’ discharge planning for patients with colorectal cancer.

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 439 | views: 503 | pages: 303-313

    Background & Aim: Tobacco use is a leading cause or contributor to several chronic health illnesses. Smokers should be encouraged to quit smoking by healthcare providers. Nursing students represent a substantial part of the health delivery workforce in the future. It is crucial to know their knowledge and involvement in tobacco smoking control. We investigate smoking knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward tobacco smoking among undergraduate nursing program female students.
    Methods & Materials: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational design was used to achieve the study aims. The subjects were 134 female undergraduate nursing students who were recruited in 2016 from a school in a governmental university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire that included the Global Health Professional Student Survey along with additional relevant questions was utilized.
    Results: Throughout their lifetime, 80.6% reported not smoking any type of tobacco product (never called smokers), and 19.4% reported smoking either cigarettes or waterpipes (called smokers ever). Female nursing students were less likely to become smokers if they thought that a smoker who quits smoking would ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ avoid or decrease serious health problems [OR: 8.08 (95% CI: 2.00, 32.70), p = < 0.01]. Whereas students who were allowed to smoke at home, or were allowed to smoke in the presence of children, were more likely to become smokers.
    Conclusion: Knowledge about the harmful consequences of smoking alone was not enough to motivate smokers to quit. Nursing students should receive training on smoking cessation techniques.

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 363 | views: 223 | pages: 314-325

    Background & Aim: Transitional care is considered an effective strategy to ensure continuity of care. The comprehensive investigation of this concept and its requirements during patient transfer has been neglected. The aim of this study is to explore nurses' experience of transitional care in the open-heart surgery intensive care unit and its requirements.
    Methods & Materials: This qualitative study was conducted using the conventional content analysis approach. A purposeful sampling method with maximum variation was performed among the nurses involved in the transfer process. Data were collected using 8 in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Granheim and Lundman method.‎
    Results: The main categories included the process of patient transfer and transitional care requirements. The sub-categories of the patient transfer process included pre-transfer, handover, and care measures after settlement in the general ward. The sub-categories of transitional care requirements included psychological preparation of the patient, the necessity of consolidating communication, maintaining continuity of care, patient education, and support, and considering the family's position in transitional care.
    Conclusion: The study concluded that transitional care is an interactive and dynamic process that extends from the physician's decision to transfer the patient from the ICU to the discharge phase in the general ward. Paying attention to the requirements of transitional care can provide solutions to strengthen and organize this process. Therefore, it is suggested to apply the findings of this study in planning the strategies related to transitional care.

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 338 | views: 416 | pages: 326-336

    Background & Aim: The activities of advanced practice registered nurses in Korea have expanded, but studies on their job satisfaction are lacking. This study aimed to determine the factors influencing job satisfaction among Korean advanced practice registered nurses.
    Methods & Materials: A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted with 142 APRNs selected from three tertiary hospitals in Korea from December 2020 to January 2021. Job satisfaction and the factors influencing it were investigated using structured questionnaires; factors affecting job satisfaction were identified by multiple regression analysis. Data analysis was processed using the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program.
    Results: Advanced practice registered nurses’ sex (β=.15, p=0.004), satisfaction with workload (β=.24, p<0.001), professional visibility (β=. 21, p=0.004), and APRN-physician relations in the work environment (β=.38, p<0.001), and clinical decision-making ability (β=.17, p=0.004) were identified as the factors influencing job satisfaction, which together explained 67% of the variance in job satisfaction.
    Conclusion: To increase advanced practice registered nurses' job satisfaction, nurse managers must consider strategies for providing administrative and educational support for workload control, recognition of professional identity and autonomy, and improving the work environment to encourage efficient interaction with physicians and improved clinical decision-making ability.

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 353 | views: 358 | pages: 337-348

    Background & Aim: The construction of an ostomy has a physical, psychological, and social impact, requiring the need to adapt. The way this event is experienced is influenced by several factors, namely ostomy self-care competence, the aspect most referred to in the literature. Nurses' specific and systematic intervention positively influences the person's adaptation to the ostomy. This study aimed to describe the perception of nurses and people with ostomies about promoting ostomy self-care.
    Methods & Materials: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten nurses specializing in stoma therapy and twelve people with bowel elimination ostomy. Content analysis was performed according to Bardin with categorical analysis.
    Results: Two themes emerged from the interviews: the promotion of awareness, with three categories and four sub-categories, and the promotion of ostomy self-care, with five categories and twenty-four sub-categories. In promoting awareness, the participants mentioned key contents that could be included in the nurse’s approach: assessing awareness, content for promoting awareness, and awareness indicators. Within the scope of promoting self-care, categories emerged, such as the intervention standardization, the contents, the methodologies, and the resources to promote self-care.
    Conclusion: This study adds to evidence about promoting awareness of bowel elimination ostomy and self-care competence after the procedure. These results can be useful for nurses, allowing them to reflect on clinical practice and helping to improve the planning of their intervention in promoting stoma self-care.

  • XML | PDF | downloads: 473 | views: 737 | pages: 349-359

    Background & Aim: Coma is one of the severe complications of traumatic brain injury. The study aimed to determine the effect of auditory sensory stimulation on the level of consciousness and cognitive function of patients with traumatic brain injury.
    Methods & Materials: This study is a triple-blind randomized controlled clinical trial on 60 patients with traumatic brain injury selected using consecutive sampling. They were then randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. The patients in the intervention group received auditory sensory stimulation (twice a day for 15 minutes), while those in the control group only received the routine sounds of the ward (through headphones) for six days. The data were measured using the Glasgow Coma Scale and the Rancho Los Amigos Scale daily. SPSS software version 22 and descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis.
    Results: According to the independent samples t-test, there was a significant increase in the level of consciousness on the third, fifth, and sixth days after the intervention among the patients in the intervention group compared to the control group (P=0.001). The findings of two-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed that auditory sensory stimulation could lead to a statistically significant improvement in the cognitive function of patients in the intervention group compared to the control group (P= 0.003).
    Conclusion: Because of the improvement of the level of consciousness and cognitive function resulting from auditory sensory stimulation, this method is recommended to improve consciousness and cognitive function in patients with traumatic brain injury.