Publications by authors named "Anna Sandgren"
Aim: To explore residents' experiences of the mealtime environment in nursing home.
Design: An exploratory qualitative design was employed to gain in-depth insights.
Methods: Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with residents at a nursing home.
Background: The Serious Illness Care Programme was developed to promote more, better and earlier serious illness conversations. Conversations about goals and values are associated with improved experiences and outcomes for seriously ill patients. Clinicians' attitudes and beliefs are thought to influence the uptake and performance of serious illness conversations, yet little is known about how clinicians perceive the impact of these conversations on patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- * A total of 73 publications were analyzed, highlighting various interventions primarily at the micro- and meso-level, with varying degrees of success in improving health and service utilization outcomes.
- * Expert discussions revealed key challenges, including inadequate evaluation methods and the need for more macro-level interventions, leading to recommendations for better collaboration between care organizations and researchers to enhance care effectiveness.
The Serious Illness Care Program was developed to support goals and values discussions between seriously ill patients and their clinicians. The , that is, the essential clinical conversation skills that are described as requisite for effective serious illness conversations (SICs) in practice, have not yet been explicated. This integrative systematic review aimed to identify core competencies for SICs in the context of the Serious Illness Care Program.
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- Previous research highlighted healthcare professionals' low preparedness in palliative care, leading to the development of the Swedish Self-Efficacy in Palliative Care Scale (SEPC-SE) to measure readiness in key areas like communication and teamwork.
- *The study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the SEPC-SE compared to the original SEPC, and to analyze self-efficacy differences between nurses and physicians in hospital settings.
- *Results indicated that while SEPC-SE is a reliable tool, nurses exhibited lower self-efficacy than physicians, particularly in multidisciplinary teamwork, with factors like education and experience strongly influencing self-efficacy levels.
Physicians' perceptions of the implementation of the serious illness care program: a qualitative study.
BMC Health Serv Res
December 2023
Background: Conversations about goals, values and priorities with patients that are seriously ill are associated with improved palliative healthcare. The Serious Illness Care Program is a multi-component program that can facilitate more, better, and earlier conversations between clinicians and seriously ill patients. For successful and sustainable implementation of the Serious Illness Care Program, it is important to consider how stakeholders perceive it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Objectives: To further develop and validate the Mealtime instrument, an observational instrument for assessing mealtime environments in nursing homes originating from the theoretical framework: Five Aspects Meal Model (FAMM).
Methodological Design And Justification: A mealtime experience is significant for a sense of well-being. In nursing homes, residents' personal preferences, combined with their diagnoses and different stages of illness, influence their mealtime experience and provide a complexity that has been found difficult to assess.
Article Synopsis
- - The study aimed to translate and adapt the Serious Illness Conversation Guide for the Swedish healthcare system, involving cognitive interviews with patients, family members, and healthcare professionals to gather feedback and improve the guide.
- - The adapted guide was tested during training sessions for medical staff and was deemed effective in supporting difficult conversations about serious illnesses, while also being sensitive to the emotional challenges involved.
- - Participants reported that the guide was appropriate and responsive to their needs, suggesting it could promote healthier discussions about serious illnesses, although further research is necessary to assess its impact on person-centered and goal-concordant care.
Article Synopsis
- A study aimed to understand the memories of former COVID-19 patients who were treated in an ICU, focusing on how their experiences in a stressful environment affected their recollections of their treatment.* -
- Interviews with 16 former patients revealed three main themes in their memories: feeling like they were in a distorted reality, feeling isolated and vulnerable, and various strategies they used to cope with these distressing memories.* -
- The findings suggest that while protective equipment worn by healthcare workers made patients feel distant, the key to better patient experiences is to ensure they receive attentive and respectful care.*
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how family members of critically ill patients cope with the emotional and psychological challenges they face during and after the patient's intensive care treatment.
- Using classic grounded theory, researchers conducted interviews and observations with family members to identify their main concerns and coping strategies.
- The findings highlight that family members often shift their focus from their own needs to the patient's survival, and the study emphasizes the importance of healthcare professionals providing support and clear communication to help them through this difficult process.
Core elements of serious illness conversations: an integrative systematic review.
BMJ Support Palliat Care
February 2024
Background: Ariadne Labs' Serious Illness Care Program (SICP), inclusive of the Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG), has been adapted for use in a variety of settings and among diverse population groups. Explicating the core elements of serious illness conversations could support the inclusion or exclusion of certain components in future iterations of the programme and the guide.
Aim: This integrative systematic review aimed to identify and describe core elements of serious illness conversations in relation to the SICP and/or SICG.
Article Synopsis
- People with psychotic disorders face higher risks of physical diseases and mortality, prompting research on improving their health through lifestyle changes.
- The study focused on how physical activity, salutogenic health (health-promoting factors), and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels are connected in individuals after a personalized lifestyle program.
- Findings revealed that increased physical activity correlates with better salutogenic health and lower HbA1c levels, highlighting the importance of tailored nursing care to help improve lifestyles for this vulnerable group.
Introduction: The message of palliative care can be promoted using creative thinking and gamification. It can be an innovative strategy to promote changes in behaviour, promote thinking, and work on skills such as empathy.
Aim: Design, test and evaluate a gamified social intervention to enhance palliative care awareness among young university students from non-health background.
Article Synopsis
- Mealtimes in care homes play a crucial role in residents' physical and social well-being, yet they often lack control over meal times and food choices.
- This review analyzed 13 research articles from 2010-2021 that investigated mealtime interventions using the Five Aspects Meal Model (FAMM).
- The findings suggest that addressing multiple aspects of FAMM can enhance mealtime experiences, making it a valuable tool for improving meal situations in care settings.
Article Synopsis
- - The Serious Illness Care Programme aims to align patient care with their priorities, but healthcare professionals face challenges in identifying who should engage in serious illness conversations.
- - A study involving observations and interviews with medical staff revealed that knowing the right patients and timing is essential, while relationships and attitudes toward death greatly influence the identification process.
- - The findings suggest that a nuanced approach to identifying patients is needed, as reliance on generic tools may overlook significant existential and ethical factors affecting healthcare professionals' decisions.
Article Synopsis
- The study aims to assess the experience of nursing home professionals in delivering palliative care before and after an educational intervention designed to improve their skills and knowledge.
- The intervention involved five seminars and included 129 professionals from the intervention group and 160 from the control group, with evaluations conducted using a specific questionnaire.
- Results showed some positive changes in practices, such as better symptom assessment and support for families, but highlighted that further research is needed to enhance the educational model and suggest improvements like ongoing supervision for professionals.
Article Synopsis
- - The Serious Illness Care Program (SICP) aims to improve communication between healthcare providers and patients regarding serious illnesses, but its sustainable implementation in hospitals is not well understood.
- - A study involving two hospitals in Sweden gathered data through interviews with facilitators to explore barriers and enablers in implementing the SICP, finding three main enablers and eight factors that affect success.
- - Results indicated that readiness for implementing the SICP is variable, influenced by factors such as leadership, time, and motivation, and understanding these elements can help improve future implementations.
Article Synopsis
- The study explores how healthcare professionals perceive and experience communication about prognosis and end-of-life care for heart failure patients using a heart-failure-specific question prompt list (HF-QPL).
- It involved qualitative analysis of reflections from 15 nurses and physicians in Sweden who utilized the HF-QPL during a communication course.
- Five key themes emerged, highlighting the importance of role awareness, preparation, confidence, the HF-QPL as a communication tool, and the challenges faced in using the prompt list effectively.
Background: One challenge for healthcare professionals when delivering palliative care can be their lack of confidence. The Self-efficacy in Palliative Care Scale (SEPC) is considered a valid and reliable assessment scale to evaluate confidence when delivering palliative care. Currently, there is not a reliable instrument aimed to measure healthcare professionals' confidence in palliative care in Swedish.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatient Identification for Serious Illness Conversations: A Scoping Review.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
March 2022
Article Synopsis
- - Serious illness conversations are designed to better align medical treatment with what patients value and prefer, but effective methods to identify patients in need of these conversations are not well-studied or compared across different settings.
- - A scoping review analyzed literature from 2014 to 2021 and found that common methods for identifying patients include clinical triggers, the 'surprise question', or a combination of methods, with contributions from various healthcare staff and automated tools.
- - The study highlighted both facilitative factors and barriers in the patient identification process, suggesting that future research should evaluate how to improve identification methods and better understand clinicians' decision-making in this area.
Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Content Validation of the Palliative Care Self-Efficacy Scale for Use in the Swedish Context.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
January 2022
The Palliative Care Self-Efficacy Scale (PCSE) is a valid instrument in English for assessing healthcare professionals' self-efficacy in providing palliative care; it has not been translated into Swedish. The aim of this study was to describe the translation, cultural adaptation, and content-validation process of the PCSE scale. In this study, forward and backward translations, pretesting including an expert panel ( = 7), and cognitive interviewing with possible healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, and assistant nurses) ( = 10) were performed.
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- The study aimed to evaluate the quality of life in frail older adults (65+) residing in nursing homes, focusing on gender and age differences in their perceptions.
- Conducted between 2015-2017 in southern Sweden, the research used two established questionnaires and involved structured interviews with 78 participants.
- Findings indicated that these older adults felt a lack of autonomy and limited opportunities for activities, yet showed minimal fear of death; no significant quality of life differences were noted based on gender or age.
Interdisciplinary discussions on palliative care among university students in Spain: giving voice to the social debate.
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being
December 2021
Article Synopsis
- University students have a significant impact on societal views, making it important for them to understand palliative care (PC), even those from non-health disciplines.
- A qualitative study utilized virtual focus groups to explore perceptions of PC among students from various fields in Spain, resulting in four main themes regarding their understanding and assumptions about PC.
- Despite limited knowledge, students engaged in meaningful discussions about PC, highlighting its importance and challenging misconceptions, indicating that educational efforts on this topic could be beneficial across multiple disciplines.
Stabilizing life: A grounded theory of surviving critical illness.
Intensive Crit Care Nurs
December 2021
Objectives: The experience of critical illness among patients is both complex and multifaceted. It can make patients vulnerable to long-term consequences such as impairment in cognition, mental health and physical functional ability which affects health related quality of life. This study aims to explore patients' patterns of behaviour during the process from becoming critical ill to recovery at home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study aimed to describe and compare symptoms, care needs and types of diagnoses in hospitalised patients with palliative care needs in Spain and Sweden.
Methods: A cross-sectional, population-based study was carried out at two hospitals in both Spain and Sweden. Using a questionnaire, we performed 154 one-day inventories (n=4213) in Spain and 139 in Sweden (n=3356) to register symptoms, care needs and diagnoses.