Eva Cignacco

Bern University of Applied Sciences | BFH · Department Business, Health, Social Work

Background/Objectives: Parents of premature infants experience depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and increased stress, which can negatively impact parent–infant relationships and infant development. To reduce negative consequences and optimally support families, we developed the Transition to Home model (TtH). In this randomized...

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in healthcare is regarded as important by professionals, as it increases the quality of care while decreasing costs. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a prerequisite for IPC and influences learners’ attitudes, knowledge, and collaboration skills. Since attitudes shape behavior, understanding how they are for...

INTRODUCTION Perinatal mental health disorders (PMDs) are a global health concern. In industrialized countries, the prevalence of PMDs is estimated to be 20%, and they are associated with serious negative effects for women, their children and their families, along with high societal costs related to long-term impacts. In Switzerland, the PMD detect...

Background: Pregnant women with obesity are more likely to experience cesarean birth compared to women without obesity. Yet, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate how mediators contribute to the association between obesity and prelabor/intrapartum cesarean birth. Methods: We retros...

Background Paediatric Palliative Care (PPC) focuses on ensuring the best possible quality of life for the child and his/her family by extending beyond the physical domain into psychosocial and spiritual wellbeing. A deep understanding of what is important to parents is crucial in guiding the further evaluation and improvement of PPC and end-of-life...

There are few programs available aimed at preventing short- and long-term negative consequences after preterm birth and covering the entire care continuum. The “Transition to Home (TtH)” model is such a program, offering structured, individual support for families with preterm infants before and after hospital discharge. This study gathers and exam...

Introduction Mistreatment during childbirth is an issue of global magnitude that not only violates fundamental human rights but also seriously impacts women’s well-being. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon by exploring the individual experiences of women who reported mistreatment during childbirth in Swit...

https://obstetrica.hebamme.ch/de/profiles/3f957b8ee011-obstetrica/editions/obstetrica-1-2-2022/pages/page/8

Background : Women with social disadvantage have poorer perinatal outcomes compared to women in advantaged social positions, which may be linked to poorer healthcare utilisation. Disadvantaged groups may experience a greater diversity of barriers (e.g., feeling embarrassed about pregnancy, lack of transportation) or barriers judged to be particular...

Introduction Mistreatment during childbirth is an issue of global magnitude that not only violates fundamental human rights but also seriously impacts women's well-being. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon by exploring the individual experiences of women who reported mistreatment during childbirth in Swit...

Background In many countries, the increase in facility births is accompanied by a high rate of obstetric interventions. Lower birthrates or elevated risk factors such as women’s higher age at childbirth and an increased need for control and security cannot entirely explain this rise in obstetric interventions. Another possible factor is that women...

Background Families with preterm infants find life after hospital discharge challenging and need tailored support to thrive. The “Transition to Home (TtH)”-model offers structured, individual support for families with preterm infants before and after hospital discharge. TtH improves parental mental health and competence, promotes child development...

Background: Mothers and fathers are severely challenged when providing care for their terminally ill child at end of life. Caregiving needs have been studied predominantly in mothers. Differences in caregiving needs between mothers and fathers during their child's end of life have not, however, been explored so far. This knowledge is of importance...

Objectives: To describe and compare characteristics of care provided at the end of life for children with chronic complex conditions and neonates who died in an ICU with those who died outside an ICU. Design: Substudy of a nation-wide retrospective chart review. Setting: Thirteen hospitals, including 14 pediatric and neonatal ICUs, two long-term in...

Background: Individual contextual factors like gestational age (GA) or previous painful experiences have an influence on neonates' pain responses and may lead to inaccurate pain assessment when not appropriately considered. Objectives: We set out to determine the influence of individual contextual factors on variability in pain response in neona...

Background: Mental disorders in the perinatal period (PMD) can severely harm women and their children if not detected early and treated appropriately. Even though mental health care is covered by health insurance and is used widely by women in the perinatal period in Switzerland, it is not known if the care provided is meeting the needs of the pat...

Objectives: To describe and compare characteristics of care provided at the end of life for children with chronic complex conditions and neonates who died in an ICU with those who died outside an ICU. Design: Substudy of a nation-wide retrospective chart review. Setting: Thirteen hospitals, including 14 pediatric and neonatal ICUs, two long-te...

Background: Parenting stress after preterm birth (PTB) has negative long-term effects on parenting. Research about parental experiences after PTB and on parenting stress in early childhood has focused on mothers. Purpose: To compare parenting stress between mothers and fathers 2 to 3 years after PTB and full-term birth (FTB) and to explore their...

Maternal obesity often occurs together with comorbid diabetes and hypertensive disorders. All three conditions are independently associated with negative perinatal outcomes. Our objective was to determine the risk and burden of adverse perinatal outcome that could be attributed to maternal obesity in combination with a comorbid status. We analyzed...

Aim: To describe communication barriers faced by allophone migrant women in maternity care provision from the perspectives of migrant women, healthcare professionals and intercultural interpreters. Background: Perinatal health inequality of migrant women hinges on barriers to services, with a major barrier being language. Their care is often als...

Abstract Background Assessing pain in neonates is challenging because full-term and preterm neonates of different gestational ages (GAs) have widely varied reactions to pain. We validated the Bernese Pain Scale for Neonates (BPSN) by testing its use among a large sample of neonates that represented all GAs. Methods In this prospective multisite val...

Background Forced migration significantly endangers health. Women face numerous health risks, including sexual violence, lack of contraception, sexually transmitted disease, and adverse perinatal outcomes. Therefore, sexual and reproductive healthcare is a significant aspect of women asylum seekers’ health.Even when healthcare costs of asylum seeke...

Like other health professionals, midwives need moral competences in order to cope effectively with ethical issues and to prevent moral distress and negative consequences such as fatigue or impaired quality of care. In this study, we developed and conducted a survey with 280 midwives or midwifery students assessing the burden associated with ethical...

Like other health professionals, midwives need moral competences in order to cope effectively with ethical issues and to prevent moral distress and negative consequences such as fatigue or impaired quality of care. In this study, we developed and conducted a survey with 280 midwives or midwifery students assessing the burden associated with ethical...

Background: Most undergraduate midwifery curricula comprise ethics courses to strengthen the moral competences of future midwives. By contrast, surprisingly little is known about the specific moral competences considered to be relevant for midwifery practice. Describing these competences not only depends on generic assumptions about the moral natur...

Background: Most undergraduate midwifery curricula comprise ethics courses to strengthen the moral competences of future midwives. By contrast, surprisingly little is known about the specific moral competences considered to be relevant for midwifery practice. Describing these competences not only depends on generic assumptions about the moral natur...

Background: Childhood cancer patients (CCP) have been reported to be at increased risk of becoming overweight during treatment. We assessed prevalence of overweight in CCP at diagnosis and at the end of treatment, determined risk factors, and identified weight change during treatment by type of cancer. Methods: In a multicentre cohort study, we co...

Background: Paediatric end-of-life care is challenging and requires a high level of professional expertise. It is important that healthcare teams have a thorough understanding of paediatric subspecialties and related knowledge of disease-specific aspects of paediatric end-of-life care. The aim of this study was to comprehensively describe, explore...

Aim: To describe communication and access barriers encountered by allophone women of different migration backgrounds in the Swiss maternity care services, from the perspective of users, health care professionals and intercultural interpreters. Background: In addition to the challenges of maternal adjustment, pregnant migrant women must also deal...

Pediatric end-of-life care (EOL care) entails challenging tasks for health care professionals (HCPs). Little is known about HCPs’ experiences and needs when providing pediatric EOL care in Switzerland. This study aimed to describe the experiences and needs of HCPs in pediatric EOL care in Switzerland and to develop recommendations for the health mi...

Introduction: Socioeconomic deprivation in high-income industrialized countries is a key factor in poor perinatal outcomes. Limited access, utilization, and quality of antenatal care seem to play an important role in poor perinatal outcomes. Methods: This integrative review aimed to explore experiences of antenatal care among women who are socio...

Background The Bernese Pain Scale for Neonates (BPSN) is a multidimensional pain assessment tool that is already widely used in clinical settings in the German speaking areas of Europe. Recent findings indicate that pain responses in preterm neonates are influenced by individual contextual factors, such as gestational age (GA), gender and the numbe...

Aim: To understand parents' experiences and needs during a child's end-of-life care at home and to identify systemic factors that influence its provision. Background: A child's end-of-life phase is an extremely difficult time for the whole family. Parents have specific needs, especially when they care for a dying child at home. Design: Concurr...

BACKGROUND: Perinatal mental disorders (PMDs) are the most common complication of pregnancy and the first postpartum year. Since PMD prevalence and use of mental-health services by perinatal women in Switzerland are unknown, we analysed existing health statistics. METHODS: We used statistics from a large health insurance company, hospitals and fre...

Background Parents facing the death of their child have a strong need for compassionate professional support. Care services should be based on empirical evidence, be sensitive to the needs of the families concerned, take into account the heterogeneity within the medical field of paediatrics, and fit into the local health care system. We need to bet...

Objective: To explore the experiences of health care professionals related to parent involvement during painful procedures carried out on their infants and to describe contextual facilitators and barriers that influence parent involvement during evidence-based, nonpharmacologic pain relief. Design: Qualitative study with focus group interviews....

Einleitung: Die postpartale Hämorrhagie (PPH) ist eine der gefährlichsten und unkalkulierbarsten Notfälle in der Geburtshilfe. Weltweit gilt sie als eine Hauptursache für mütterliche Todesfälle. Der Behandlungserfolg ist massgeblich vom kompetenten Handeln eines interdisziplinären Teams abhängig. Beim Fachpersonal kann eine PPH potenziell Stress, A...

Parents facing the death of their child have a strong need for compassionate professional support. Care services should be based on empirical evidence, be sensitive to the needs of the families concerned, take into account the heterogeneity within the medical field of paediatrics, and fit into the local health care system. We need to better underst...

Menschen mit schweren psychischen Erkrankungen haben häufig körperliche Gesundheitsrisiken, die jedoch selten diagnostiziert und behandelt werden. Das Ziel dieser Studie ist die Erhebung der Prävalenz körperlicher Gesundheitsrisiken bei ambulant behandelten Patientinnen und Patienten mit schweren psychischen Erkrankungen und die Erfassung der durch...

Background: The Emergency Severity Index (ESI) is an English language emergency department patient triage tool. After translation, it has been adapted for use to triage patients in growing numbers of emergency departments in non-English-speaking countries. Few reports of the proficiency of triage nurses to score an ESI exist. We sought to determin...

To develop and test the Parental PELICAN Questionnaire, an instrument to retrospectively assess parental experiences and needs during their child's end-of-life care. To offer appropriate care for dying children, healthcare professionals need to understand the illness experience from the family perspective. A questionnaire specific to the end-of-lif...

This substudy of the Swiss Nursing Homes Human Resources Project (SHURP) explored the relationships between affective organizational commitment (AOC) levels and organizational, situational, and care personnel characteristics, and between AOC and care personnel outcomes. SHURP was a representative national cross-sectional study in 163 Swiss nursing...

To present a protocol for a multi-phase study about the current practice of end-of-life care in paediatric settings in Switzerland. In Switzerland, paediatric palliative care is usually provided by teams, who may not necessarily have specific training. There is a lack of systematic data about specific aspects of care at the end of a child's life, s...

Changing demographic and economic factors are producing serious challenges to Switzerland’s primary care providers: meeting the population’s growing needs will require redevelopment and reorganization. Large-scale community-based care can be expanded via alternative care models, including walk-in-clinics (WIC) stuffed by interdisciplinary teams, wi...

Aims: (a) To explore parental experiences and needs during their child's end-of-life care at home; (b) to explore patient's characteristics and current provision of paediatric end-of-life care in the home care setting in Switzerland; and (c) to determine influencing system factors impacting end-of-life care at home. Background: Parental experien...

Background: A number of medical and societal factors currently contribute to an increasing number of women who are hospitalised because they are experiencing high-risk pregnancies. The unpredictability of the further course of pregnancy may lead to a feeling of uncertainty, as well as to stress, depending on coping strategies. Aims: The aims of...

AimTo compare the influence of three different nonpharmacological interventions on cortical activation, heart rate and peripheral oxygen saturation (SaO2) after heelstick in preterm infants.Methods Twenty five preterm infants between 24 0/7 and 32 0/7 weeks of gestational age were randomized to either oral sucrose (S), facilitated tucking (FT) or a...

Background: Malnutrition is a common problem in pediatric patients with cancer. Reported prevalence varies widely and has often been assessed only in a subset of childhood types of cancer. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of malnutrition among pediatric patients newly diagnosed with cancer, to describe the occurrence and course of malnu...

Evidence indicates that medical and demographic contextual factors (cFs) impact pain responses in preterm neonates, but the existing evidence is very heterogeneous. To explore the effect of cFs on pain responses to heel-stick procedures of preterm infants. This study was a secondary analysis of data collected during a randomized controlled trial ex...

To test the comparative effectiveness of 2 nonpharmacologic pain-relieving interventions administered alone or in combination across time for repeated heel sticks in preterm infants. A multicenter randomized controlled trial in 3 NICUs in Switzerland compared the effectiveness of oral sucrose, facilitated tucking (FT), and a combination of both int...

This case study describes the history of an older person, born in 1942 preterminally, who suffered from a brain injury in 2005. Problems in rehabilitation elicited the search for a new meaning in life. In analysing and interpreting the brain injury, preterm birth played a crucial role. The theme of lifelong compensation of deficits, caused by prete...

Major efforts to develop objective measurement tools for neonatal pain assessment have been made. However, the challenge of measuring pain in neonates remains suggesting that contextual factors (cFs) might alter their responses to pain. Although the role of cFs is increasingly discussed as crucial for pain assessment, they are not well described in...

There is an impressive body of knowledge on pain management in infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units. However, deficits in the clinical management of pain in these infants remain. One reason is the gap between research evidence and translation of this knowledge into the clinical setting. This is particularly true for non-pharmacolog...

Background: Major efforts to develop objective measurement tools for neonatal pain assessment have been made. However, the challenge of measuring pain in neonates remains, suggesting that contextual factors (CFs) might alter pain response in neonates. Although the role of CFs is increasingly discussed as crucial for pain assessment, they are not we...

To investigate maternal and infant factors associated with midwife-reported crying problems in the early postpartum period. Case control study. Postnatal home care in Switzerland. Seven thousand seven hundred and sixty-five mother/child dyads who received postnatal homecare by midwives (n=1,636 cases of midwife-reported crying problems, n=6,129 con...

Although clinicians recognize that postoperative wound management in patients with vulvar cancer (VC) is challenging, the prevalence and risk factors for different types of short-term wound complications (WCs) remain unclear. The aims of this study were: (1) to determine the period prevalence of postoperative short-term WCs and (2) to identify risk...

Pressure ulcers are a common nursing care issue in hospitals. They are associated with psychological and physical suffering, an increased morbidity and mortality rate and higher overall health care costs. The aim of the current study is to describe the frequency of pressure ulcers in a paediatric care setting and to identify the population at risk,...

Ventilated preterm infants are at high risk for procedural pain exposure. In Switzerland there is a lack of knowledge about the pain management in this highly vulnerable patient population. The aims of this study were to describe the type and frequency of procedures and to determine the amount of analgesia given to this patient group in two Swiss n...

To explore the variability in pain response in preterm infants across time who received sucrose during routine heel stick. Single group, exploratory repeated measures design. Two tertiary level neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Switzerland. Nine preterm infants born between 28 2/7 and 31 4/7 weeks of gestation during their first 14 days of li...

In many Anglo-Saxon and North European countries nursing research agendas have been developed to address priorities in nursing research in accordance with a nationally defined health policy. In Switzerland, due to lack of a nationwide governmental health policy, co-ordination of nursing research so far was scarce. The "Swiss Research Agenda for Nur...

In the German-speaking part of Europe research in the pediatric field has been dominated by research with a biomedical focus. Nursing research investigating and evaluating the treatment and care process in the pediatric field has been marginal and, in the last decades, provided little evidence to enhance the development of specific criteria for nur...

In Switzerland approximately 8% of infants are born prematurely. Some of them undergo mechanical ventilation including endotracheal suctioning (ETS). ETS is one of the most frequently performed interventions and is linked to stress and pain, but its treatment is controversial. In Switzerland there is a lack of standardisation in pain relief for ETS...

Pain associated with routine procedures in NICUs is often inadequately managed. Barriers to more appropriate pain management are nurses' and physicians' knowledge and the challenges of collaborative decision-making. Few studies describe the differing perceptions of procedural pain intensity among nurses and physicians in NICUs which could complicat...

In den angelsächsischen und nordeuropäischen Ländern wurden Agenden für die Pflegeforschung entwickelt, um die Forschung auf gesundheitspolitische Zielset- zungen der Länder auszurichten. In der Schweiz erschwerte das Fehlen einer lan- desweiten gesundheitspolitischen Zielsetzung eine gemeinsame Ausrichtung der Pflegeforschung. Im Projekt «Swiss Re...

Pressure ulcers are a common nursing care issue in hospitals. Sick children, premature infants and toddlers, but also disabled and impaired children are at a high risk of developing pressure ulcers. The aim of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to describe the patients at risk as well as to identify the preventive and therapeutic interventi...