The role of managers in promoting good hand hygiene in a Finnish tertiary care hospital.

Background: Hospital managers play an essential role in implementing strategies to promote good hand hygiene (HH) among health care workers. We investigated the managers' views on their roles, challenges and developmental ideas in promoting good HH practice.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study with an online survey of both medical and nursing managers was conducted within a single tertiary care hospital in Finland.

Increasing nursing students' knowledge of evidence-based hand-hygiene: A quasi-experimental study.

Aim of study was to evaluate the effects of a multi-component intervention on nursing students' knowledge of evidence-based hand-hygiene. A quasi-experimental design was used. Nursing students (N = 146) from two universities of applied sciences (experimental group n = 107, control group n = 39) completed an instrument based on international clinical guidelines related to hand hygiene that consisted of 17 Likert-scale items.

Parents' Use of Nonpharmacologic Methods to Manage Procedural Pain in Infants.

Objective: To describe parents' use of nonpharmacologic methods to manage infant procedural pain in the NICU and determine the demographic factors related to such use.

Design: A cross-sectional and descriptive study design.

Setting: Level III and Level II NICUs (seven units) of four University Hospitals in Finland.

Nurses' perceptions of pain assessment and management practices in neonates: a cross-sectional survey.

Aims: This study aimed to describe pain assessment and management practices for neonates based on nurses' perceptions in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

Design: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted in Finland.

Methods: Of all nurses (N = 422) working in the NICUs in the country's five university hospitals, 294 responded to a questionnaire.

Factors Influencing Parental Participation in Neonatal Pain Alleviation.

Purpose: Neonates are likely to experience numerous painful procedures in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Parents have expressed a wish to be more involved in their infants' pain alleviation. The purpose of this study was to describe parents' perceptions concerning the factors that influence parental participation in pain alleviation in an NICU.

Nurses' and Parents' Perceptions of Parental Guidance on Using Nonpharmacological Pain-Relieving Methods Among Neonates in the NICU.

Despite growing knowledge of parents' important role in their infants' pain management, the extent to which nurses in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) provide guidance to parents on nonpharmacological methods is unclear. This study aimed to describe and compare the perceptions of parental guidance in using nonpharmacological pain-relieving methods among neonates in NICUs from the viewpoints of nurses and parents, and to examine the participants' demographics related to the guidance. A cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study using questionnaire surveys was conducted.

The development of ethical guidelines for nurses' collegiality using the Delphi method.

Background: Nurses' collegiality is topical because patient care is complicated, requiring shared knowledge and working methods. Nurses' collaboration has been supported by a number of different working models, but there has been less focus on ethics.

Aim: This study aimed to develop nurses' collegiality guidelines using the Delphi method.

Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses' Perceptions of Parental Participation in Infant Pain Management: A Comparative Focus Group Study.

This comparative focus group study explored nurses' experiences and perceptions regarding parental participation in infant pain management in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A total of 87 nurses from 7 NICUs in Finland, Sweden, and the United States participated in focus-group interviews (n = 25). Data were analyzed using deductive and inductive thematic analysis.

Adherence to hand hygiene guidelines - significance of measuring fidelity.

Aims And Objectives: The aim was to evaluate the usability of fidelity measures in compliance evaluation of hand hygiene.

Background: Adherence to hand hygiene guidelines is important in terms of patient safety. Compliance measures seldom describe how exactly the guidelines are followed.

Mothers' perceptions of their health choices, related duties and responsibilities: A qualitative interview study.

Objective: to describe mothers' perceptions of their health choices, related duties and responsibilities.

Design: descriptive exploratory study with qualitative research method.

Setting: interviews conducted after the clients' regular health visits to one publicly provided maternity clinic in a southern city in Finland.

Professional ethics in nursing: an integrative review.

Aim: To conduct an integrative review and synthesize current primary studies of professional ethics in nursing.

Background: Professional ethics is a familiar concept in nursing and provides an ethical code for nursing practice. However, little is known about how professional ethics has been defined and studied in nursing science.

Development and preliminary validation of the Neonatal Infant Acute Pain Assessment Scale (NIAPAS).

Background: Several pain scales are available for neonates, but, unfortunately they are only rarely used in clinical practice. To help with the current situation of unrecognized and under-treated pain in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), we developed an assessment tool in close collaboration with clinical staff.

Objectives: To develop a multidimensional scale, NIAPAS (the Neonatal Infant Acute Pain Assessment Scale), that is sensitive to the needs of infants in neonatal intensive care units, and to test the validity, reliability, feasibility and clinical utility of the scale for this population.

Nurses' perceptions of the use of restraint in pediatric somatic care.

Background: The interest in the children's role in pediatric care is connected to children's health-related autonomy and informed consent in care. Despite the strong history of children's rights, nurses' role in the everyday nursing phenomenon, that is, restraint in somatic pediatric care, is still relatively seldom reported.

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe nurses' perceptions of the use of restraint in somatic pediatric care.

Nurses' narratives on termination of primary nursing relationship with parents in neonatal intensive care.

Background: Primary nursing working model in the neonatal intensive care unit enables a long-lasting caring relationship with the infants and their parents. Terminating this kind of relationship is seldom discussed.

Aim: The aim of the study was to describe nurses' experiences of terminating the primary nursing relationship with the parents in neonatal intensive care.

It's time for updating primary nursing in pediatric oncology care: qualitative study highlighting the perceptions of nurses, physicians and parents.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to describe nurses', physicians' and parents' perceptions of primary nursing as a working model in a paediatric oncology care setting.

Method: The qualitative descriptive approach was selected in order to obtain rich content by exploring of individual perceptions related to the experiences of primary nursing. Focus group interviews were used with staff and individual interviews with the parents.

Nurses' perspectives on the suffering of preterm infants.

The concept of suffering is discussed among those who are cognitively aware and verbally capable to express their suffering. Due to immaturity, preterm infants' abilities to express suffering are limited. Relieving suffering is an ethical and juridical demand of good nursing care.

Meta-synthesis and evidence-based health care--a method for systematic review.

Background: Even the systematic reviews of qualitative studies are discussed health literature, the significance of their results is not fully recognised in evidence-based practice.

Aim: The aim of this article is to describe the systematic reviews of qualitative studies, metasynthesis and its process and consider the meaning of meta-synthesis in evidence-based practice.

Conclusions: Meta-synthesis is a method for synthesising knowledge, for example, relating to service users' healthcare-related experiences and the factors that facilitate their involvement in their own care and commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

Expectations associated with the use of music in neonatal intensive care: a survey from the viewpoint of parents.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe parents' expectations concerning the use of music in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and to reveal any related background factors.

Design And Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational design guided a survey of 197 parents from five NICUs in Finland.

Results: Most parents agreed that the preferred music could have positive effects on the infants, staff, and parents in the NICU.

Nurses' expectations of using music for premature infants in neonatal intensive care unit.

This study aimed to describe nurses' expectations of using music for premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and to find out about the related background factors. The subjects consisted of 210 Finnish nurses who were recruited from the country's five university hospitals providing premature infant care in NICU. The data were collected by validated questionnaire, and the response rate was 82%.

The effectiveness of music on pain among preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit: a systematic review.

Review Question/objective: The objective of this review is to synthesize the best available evidence related to the effectiveness of music as pain relieving method among preterm infants during painful procedures in the neonatal intensive care unit.Review questions are: Among preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit, is music effective in reducing BACKGROUND: Preterm infants (i.e.

A multicentred clinical improvement project among preterm population evaluation of current practices.

Sepsis, a potentially life-threatening infection, is a common complication related to the use of central venous catheters (CVCs) in the preterm infant population. Best practice guidelines include successful strategies to prevent infections. Central venous catheter use is a fairly recent intervention in Finnish neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

Nurses' attitudes and perceptions of pain assessment in neonatal intensive care.

Background: Pain assessment of premature infants continue to be ineffective. The problem may be partly because of misconceptions or lack of knowledge in the assessment of pain in children.

Aims: This paper reports a study to describe nurses' attitudes towards and perceptions of pain assessment in neonatal intensive care and the demographic factors related to these attitudes and perceptions of pain.

Promoting children's pharmacological postoperative pain alleviation at home.

This study evaluated the influence of parental use of Parents' Post-Operative Pain Measure (PPPM) on 1 to 2-year-old children's pharmacological pain alleviation at home. Fifty parents whose child had undergone day surgery in three University Hospitals in Finland between January 2006 and June 2007 completed questionnaires. Parents of the intervention group (n=29) were provided with PPPM as an intervention to promote children's pain relief at home, while parents in the control group (n=1) did not receive the PPPM.