Advanced practice nurses' daily practices delivering primary care to residents in long-term care facilities: a qualitative study.

Background: Globally, there is a growing shortage of primary care professionals, including those who serve residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). In recent decades, numerous new care models have been implemented to improve these residents' care. Many incorporate Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) into interprofessional healthcare teams.

Daily practices of advanced practice nurses within a multi-professional primary care practice in Switzerland: a qualitative analysis.

Background: The rising global population of older persons with chronic conditions demands new primary care models. Advanced practice nurses (APNs) can help meet that need. In Switzerland, APNs have only recently been introduced in primary care and little is known about their daily practice.

[“Don't let the world become too small” – How patients with advanced cancer and their significant others cope with transitions during the last year of life. A qualitative study].

Background: In the last year of life, persons with advanced cancer and their significant others are affected by several transitions. They perform psychological adjustment processes during transformation. This requires strategies for patients and their significant others.

Framework for Evaluating the Impact of Advanced Practice Nursing Roles.

Purpose: To address the gap in evidence-based information required to support the development of advanced practice nursing (APN) roles in Switzerland, stakeholders identified the need for guidance to generate strategic evaluation data. This article describes an evaluation framework developed to inform decisions about the effective utilization of APN roles across the country.

Approach: A participatory approach was used by an international group of stakeholders.

Prevalence and contributors to fatigue in individuals hospitalized with advanced cancer: a prospective, observational study.

Background: Although fatigue affects over 75% of patients with advanced cancer, changes over time in symptoms and antecedents have not been described in the acute care setting.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence, in patients with advanced cancer, of fatigue and anaemia on admission, describe strategies used to treat anaemia, observe changes in fatigue over ten days, and determine factors associated with fatigue.

Design: Prospective, observational study.

Prevalence of symptoms, with a focus on fatigue, and changes of symptoms over three months in outpatients receiving cancer chemotherapy.

Questions Under Study: Prevalence of symptoms, with a focus on fatigue, and changes of symptoms were explored over three months in outpatients with lymphoma, lung, breast or colorectal cancer, receiving chemotherapy in the oncology outpatient clinic of a Swiss tertiary care hospital.

Methods: Prospective, descriptive design; symptom prevalence was measured at start of chemotherapy (T1), and one week prior to the third and fourth cycle (T2, T3). Included were patients starting chemotherapy, with expected survival of >3 months, irrespective of stage of disease.

Symptom prevalence and changes of symptoms over ten days in hospitalized patients with advanced cancer: a descriptive study.

Purpose: This prospective study described symptom prevalence and changes of symptoms over ten days in patients with advanced cancer admitted to two Swiss tertiary care hospitals because of symptoms, deterioration of health status, or complications.

Method: Prevalence, frequency, severity of and distress from 31 symptoms were assessed repeatedly with the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale in 103 patients at admission, and on day six (n = 76) and ten (n = 53) of the hospital stay. Repeated measures regression models were used for analysis.

[Reading nursing Literature in English: new inputs for practicing nurses].

A prerequisite to providing evidence-based care is the ability to comprehend the nursing research literature, most of which is published in English. To facilitate this understanding, a course on "reading the research literature for evidence-based practice in English" was developed by an interdisciplinary team for staff nurses at the University Hospital Basel. The pilot course was offered to nurses who specialized in cancer care.