Publications (44) View all
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Article: Enjoying work or burdened by it? How personal assistants experience and handle stress at work.
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ABSTRACT: A personal assistant has to promote equality in living conditions for persons with severe disabilities. The aim of this study was to explore how personal assistants experience their work and what strategies they employ to alleviate work-related stress. Thirty personal assistants were interviewed and latent content analysis was performed. The findings regarding the experiences of work-related stress could be brought together under the theme of "difficulties of being in a subordinate position," and those regarding management strategies could be brought together under the theme of "coming to terms with the work situation." There is a need to empower personal assistants through training programs including tailored education, working communities, and coaching.Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation 04/2012; 11(2):112-27. -
Article: Implementation of a multi-professional standardized care plan in electronic health records for the care of stroke patients.
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ABSTRACT: To compare staff opinions about standardized care plans and self-reported habits with regard to documentation, and their perceived knowledge about the evidence-based guidelines in stroke care before and after implementation of an evidence-based-standardized care plan (EB-SCP) and quality standard for stroke care. The aim was also to describe staff opinions about, and their use of, the implemented EB-SCP. To facilitate evidence-based practice (EBP), a multi-professional EB-SCP and quality standard for stroke care was implemented in the electronic health record (EHR). Quantitative, descriptive and comparative, based on questionnaires completed before and after implementation. Perceived knowledge about evidence-based guidelines in stroke care increased after implementation of the EB-SCP. The majority agreed that the EB-SCP is useful and facilitates their work. There was no change between before and after implementation with regard to opinions about standardized care plans, self-reported documentation habits or time spent on documentation. An evidence-based SCP seems to be useful in patient care and improves perceived knowledge about evidence-based guidelines in stroke care. For nursing managers, introduction of evidence-based SCP in the EHR may improve the prerequisites for promoting high-quality EBP in multi-professional care.Journal of Nursing Management 09/2011; 19(6):810-9. · 1.18 Impact Factor -
Article: Family members' experiences of personal assistance given to a relative with disabilities.
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ABSTRACT: Personal assistance is a type of home care common to many countries even though entitlement and legislative framework may vary from country to country. At present, there exists no knowledge about the family members' experiences of such assistance; therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate family members' experiences of personal assistance given to a relative of working age with a functional disability. Twenty-five family members who had a relative with a severe neurological disease in Sweden were interviewed about the significance of personal assistance, and the qualitative interviews were subjected to qualitative latent content analysis. The overall findings verify the close connection between the family members' experiences and their perception of the quality of the caring relationship between the personal assistant and the person with disability. The main finding was an appreciation of the personal assistance on the part of the family members. However, in situations where the encounter between the assistant and the relative with disability was perceived negatively, the family members experienced great anxiety. The shortcomings were the inability to maintain a private life with assistance and the limitation of choice because of the shortage of personal assistants. Beyond these general findings, this study found that personal assistance was experienced by the family members in terms of dignity and empowering care. This theme was generated from seven subthemes: Insight into private life, Security through the close relation, Social life through freedom of movement, Influence over the organisation of assistance, Self-determination and understanding, Friendship and mutual respect and Adaption to the dependency on assistance. The findings indicate that responsible officials, work leaders and assistants need constantly to improve the implementation of the law. In such efforts, the experiences of family members described in this study are a source of knowledge.Health & Social Care in the Community 06/2011; 19(6):645-52. · 0.86 Impact Factor -
Article: Patient information and participation still in need of improvement: evaluation of patients' perceptions of quality of care.
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ABSTRACT: To identify areas in need of quality improvement by investigating inpatients' perceptions of quality of care, and to identify differences in perceptions of care related to patient gender, age and type of admission. Nursing managers play an important role in the development of high-quality care. Quality of care was assessed using the Quality from the Patients' Perspective (QPP). In all, 2734 inpatients at a Swedish university hospital completed the QPP. Inadequate quality was identified for 15 out of 24 items, e.g. information given on treatment and examination results, opportunities to participate in decisions related to care and information on self-care. Patients with emergency admissions reported lower scores for quality of information and doctors' care than did patients with planned admissions. Results from the present survey identified areas in need of quality improvement and differences in perceived care quality between patients. Quality of care must be developed in close collaboration with other healthcare professionals; in this respect, nursing managers could play an important role. Nursing managers could play a more active part in measuring quality of care, and in using results from such measurements to develop and improve quality of care.Journal of Nursing Management 03/2011; 19(2):226-36. · 1.18 Impact Factor -
Article: Why is pain still not being assessed adequately? Results of a pain prevalence study in a university hospital in Sweden.
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ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pain and pain assessment among inpatients in a university hospital. Pain management could be considered an indicator of quality of care. Few studies report on prevalence measures including all inpatients. Quantitative and explorative. Survey. Of the inpatients at the hospital who answered the survey, 494 (65%) reported having experienced pain during the preceding 24 hours. Of the patients who reported having experienced pain during the preceding 24 hours, 81% rated their pain >3 and 42.1% rated their pain >7. Of the patients who reported having experienced pain during the preceding 24 hours, 38.7% had been asked to self-assess their pain using a Numeric Rating Scale (NRS); 29.6% of the patients were completely satisfied, and 11.5% were not at all satisfied with their participation in pain management. The result showed that too many patients are still suffering from pain and that the NRS is not used to the extent it should be. Efforts to overcome under-implementation of pain assessment are required, particularly on wards where pain is not obvious, e.g., wards that do not deal with surgery patients. Work to improve pain management must be carried out through collaboration across professional groups. Using a pain assessment tool such as the NRS could help patients express their pain and improve communication between nurses and patients in relation to pain as well as allow patients to participate in their own care. Carrying out prevalence pain measures similar to those used here could be helpful in performing quality improvement work in the area of pain management.Journal of Clinical Nursing 03/2011; 20(5-6):624-34. · 1.12 Impact Factor
