Congruence between perceived and theoretical knowledge before and after an internet-based continuing education program about venous leg ulcer nursing care.

Background: Previous research has revealed nurses' knowledge gaps in venous leg ulcer (VLU) nursing care, and continuing education is needed. The closer nurses' perceived knowledge is to their evidence-based theoretical knowledge, the better possibilities they have to conduct evidence-based VLU nursing care.

Objectives: To assess the congruence between nurses' perceived and theoretical knowledge about VLU nursing care before and after an internet-based education about VLU nursing care (eVLU).

Family members' and best friend's smoking influence on adolescent smoking differs between Eastern Finland and Russian Karelia.

Aims: The aim of this study was to find out whether family members' (mother, father, siblings) and best friend's smoking is related to 9th grade pupils' daily smoking in Eastern Finland and in the Pitkäranta district, in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, and whether these relations have changed in these two culturally very different neighbourhood countries from 1995 to 2013.

Methods: Data comprised four cross-sectional studies in all schools of the Pitkäranta region and selected schools in Eastern Finland. In data analyses, structural equation modelling techniques were used.

Final assessment of nursing students in clinical practice: Perspectives of nursing teachers, students and mentors.

Aims And Objectives: To describe the phenomenon of final assessment of the clinical practice of nursing students and to examine whether there were differences in assessments by the students and their teachers and mentors.

Background: Final assessment of students in clinical practice during their education has great importance for ensuring that enough high-quality nursing students are trained, as assessment tasks affect what the nursing student learns during the clinical practice.

Design: This study used descriptive, cross-sectional design.

Predictors of institutionalization among home-dwelling older Finnish people: a 22-year follow-up study.

Background: Identification of predictive factors on institutionalization provides the basis for the development and application of preadmission assessment. There is a lack of evidence for predictors of institutionalization for older people.

Aims: To examine the effect of predictive factors on institutionalization in home-dwelling 70-year-old people.

Internet-based learning programme to increase nurses' knowledge level about venous leg ulcer care in home health care.

Aims And Objectives: To test the effectiveness of an Internet-based education programme about venous leg ulcer nursing care on perceived and theoretical knowledge levels and attitudes among nurses working in home health care.

Background: Nurses have been shown to have knowledge gaps in venous leg ulcer nursing care. Internet-based learning could offer a means for flexible continuing education for home healthcare environment.

Development of Nurses' Professional Competence Early in Their Career: A Longitudinal Study.

Background: Research on newly graduated nurses' competence development and associated factors is relatively scarce.

Method: Data for this longitudinal, descriptive, correlation study were collected during 2012-2014 from 318 Finnish nurses to explore their competence development during the first 3 years after graduation and to estimate the extent to which given work-related factors predicted change in competence. Data were analyzed using NCSS 10 statistical software.

Adolescents' Attitudes on Smoking Are Related to Experimentation with Smoking, Daily Smoking and Best Friends' Smoking in Two Karelias in Finland and in Russia.

Purpose: Becoming a smoker usually starts during adolescence and is a dynamic process involving experimentation before the establishment of daily smoking. It has been suggested that adolescents who smoke differ from those who do not in their attitudes to smoking. The purpose of this study was to find out whether attitudes related to smoking legislation and restrictions, social pressures in smoking and image of smokers are associated with smoking experimentation, daily smoking and best friends' smoking.

Newly graduated nurses' empowerment regarding professional competence and other work-related factors.

Background: Although both nurse empowerment and competence are fundamental concepts of describing newly graduated nurses' professional development and job satisfaction, only few studies exist on the relationship between these concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine how newly graduated nurses assess their empowerment and to clarify professional competence compared to other work-related factors.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational design was applied.

Cardiovascular risk profile and use of statins at the age of 70 years: a comparison of two Finnish birth cohorts born 20 years apart.

Objective: to compare cardiovascular morbidity and risk factor profiles of two 70-year-old cohorts of Finns examined in 1991 and 2011 and to describe prevalence of statin use according to cardiovascular risk in the later cohort.

Methods: 1920-born cohort of community-dwelling 70-year-old persons (n = 1032) participated in comprehensive health surveys, physical and laboratory examinations in the Turku Elderly Study (TUVA) during 1991-92. In 2011, identical examination pattern was performed, in a 1940-born cohort of 70-year-old persons (n = 956) from the same area.

Newly graduated nurses' occupational commitment and its associations with professional competence and work-related factors.

Aims And Objectives: To explore newly graduated nurses' occupational commitment and its associations with their self-assessed professional competence and other work-related factors.

Background: As a factor affecting nurse turnover, newly graduated nurses' occupational commitment and its associations with work-related factors needs exploring to retain adequate workforce. Nurses' commitment has mainly been studied as organisational commitment, but newly graduated nurses' occupational commitment and its association with work-related factors needs further studying.

Newly Graduated Nurses' Competence and Individual and Organizational Factors: A Multivariate Analysis.

Objective: To study the relationships between newly graduated nurses' (NGNs') perceptions of their professional competence, and individual and organizational work-related factors.

Methods: A multivariate, quantitative, descriptive, correlation design was applied. Data collection took place in November 2012 with a national convenience sample of 318 NGNs representing all main healthcare settings in Finland.

Changes in smoking among adolescents in the Republic of Karelia, Russia and Eastern Finland from 1995 to 2013.

Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of smoking, smoking experimentation and future intention to smoke in the Pitkäranta district, the Republic of Karelia, Russia and Eastern Finland in the years 1995 and 2013.

Methods: Cross-sectional studies were carried out among 15-year-old ninth grade adolescents in all schools in the Pitkäranta region (1995: n=385, response rate 95%; 2013: 182, response rate 98%) and a sample of schools in Eastern Finland (1995: n=2098, response rate 91%; 2013: 635 response rate 95%).

Results: The daily smoking prevalence among adolescents did not change either in Eastern Finland or in the Pitkäranta district from 1995 to 2013.

Loneliness of older people aged 70: a comparison of two Finnish cohorts born 20 years apart.

Objective: This study aimed to examine loneliness among two birth cohorts, born 20 years apart, when they were 70 years of age, and to identify factors explaining loneliness.

Methods: The cohorts consisted of older home-dwelling residents of Turku, Finland, from the birth cohort 1920 in 1991 (N=1530) and the birth cohort 1940 in 2011 (N=1307). Suffering from loneliness was assessed with the question: 'Do you suffer from loneliness?' Cross-tabulations with chi-square test, general linear model (GLM) and multiple regression analysis were used in statistical testing and modeling.

Effectiveness of an Internet-based learning program on venous leg ulcer nursing care in home health care--study protocol.

Aim: To describe the study protocol for a study of the effectiveness of an internet-based learning program on venous leg ulcer nursing care (eVLU) in home health care.

Background: The prevalence of venous leg ulcers is increasing as population age. The majority of these patients are treated in a municipal home healthcare setting.

Practice environment and its association with professional competence and work-related factors: perception of newly graduated nurses.

Aim: To explore newly graduated nurses' (NGN) perception of their practice environment and its association with their self-assessed competence, turnover intentions and job satisfaction as work-related factors.

Background: The impact of practice environment on nurses' work is important. Positive practice environments are associated with positive organisational, nurse and patient outcomes.

Factors connected with positive life orientation at age 70, 80, 85 and 90 - The Turku Elderly Study.

Background: A positive life orientation (PLO) is important for staying healthy physically, mentally and functionally. However, little is known about the factors connected with PLO in home-dwelling older people, even though it is an important topic.

Aim: The aim of this study was to identify factors connected with positive life orientation among home-dwelling older people.

Ethical climate and nurse competence - newly graduated nurses' perceptions.

Background: Nursing practice takes place in a social framework, in which environmental elements and interpersonal relations interact. Ethical climate of the work unit is an important element affecting nurses' professional and ethical practice. Nevertheless, whatever the environmental circumstances, nurses are expected to be professionally competent providing high-quality care ethically and clinically.

Finnish nurses' perceptions of care of older patients.

The aim of the study was to explore how far the perceptions of care of nurses in Finland take into account the preferences of the older patient and the patient's family members and to evaluate related background factors. The data were collected by questionnaire with nurses (n=167) working in a geriatric hospital. The questionnaire contained items about shared decision-making, attitudes to nursing patients, assessment of patients' functional ability and need for care, goal-setting, evaluation of outcomes and discharge planning.

Nurse competence between three generational nurse cohorts: A cross-sectional study.

Research indicates significant differences between nurse cohorts in many work-related factors. This study compared nurse competence between three generational cohorts comprising the current nursing workforce. The Nurse Competence Scale was used to collect data for this cross-sectional study from 2052 nurses in a university hospital in Finland.

Do educational outcomes correspond with the requirements of nursing practice: educators' and managers' assessments of novice nurses' professional competence.

Objective: This study evaluated weather educational outcomes of nurse education meet the requirements of nursing practice by exploring the correspondence between nurse educators' and nurse managers' assessments of novice nurses' professional competence. The purpose was to find competence areas contributing to the acknowledged practice-theory gap.

Design: A cross-sectional, comparative design using the Nurse Competence Scale was applied.

Professional competence of practising nurses.

Aims And Objectives: To compare nurse competence in terms of its quality and frequency of action in medical, surgical, paediatric/obstetric/gynaecological and psychiatric clinical fields.

Background: One challenge of current health care is to target practising nurses' competencies to optimal use. Therefore, a systematic assessment of nurse competence is justified.

Positive life orientation in old age: a 15-year follow-up.

Background: Positive life orientation (PLO) is considered an important dimension of successful aging.

Aim: To investigate how self-reported PLO changed among home-dwelling people from age 70 to 80 and 85 years.

Study Design: A prospective, population-based 15-year follow-up study of the age cohort of 70-year-olds living in the city of Turku, Finland.

Depressive symptoms among older people: a 15-year follow-up.

Background And Aims: Depressive symptoms are common symptoms impairing the quality of life of older people. This population-based birth year cohort study investigated the prevalence of depressive symptoms and factors associated with them among home-dwelling older people.

Study Design: A prospective, population-based 15-year follow-up study of the age cohort of 70-year-olds living in the city of Turku, Finland.