Facilitating transition from children's to adult services for young adults with life-limiting conditions (TASYL): Programme theory developed from a mixed methods realist evaluation.

Background: Improvements in care and treatment have led to more young adults with life-limiting conditions living beyond childhood, necessitating a transition from children's to adult services. Given the lack of evidence on interventions to promote transition, it is important that those creating and evaluating interventions develop a theoretical understanding of how such complex interventions may work.

Objectives: To develop theory about the interventions, and organisational and human factors that help or hinder a successful transition from children's to adult services, drawing on the experience, knowledge, and insights of young adults with life-limiting conditions, their parents/carers, and service providers.

Transition from children's to adult services for young adults with life-limiting conditions: A realist review of the literature.

Background: Improvements in care and treatment have led to more young adults with life-limiting conditions living beyond childhood, which means they must make the transition from children's to adult services. This has proved a challenging process for both young adults and service providers, with complex transition interventions interacting in unpredictable ways with local contexts.

Objectives: To explain how intervention processes interact with contextual factors to help transition from children's to adult services for young adults with life-limiting conditions.

Internet Use by Parents of Children With Rare Conditions: Findings From a Study on Parents' Web Information Needs.

Background: Parents of children with rare conditions increasingly use the Internet to source information on their child's condition. This study reports on part of a larger study whose overall aim was to identify the Internet use by parents when seeking information on their child's rare condition, with the specific purpose of using the findings to aid in the development of a website specifically designed to meet the parents' needs. It presents findings on why these parents use the Internet, the information and support content they source, and the impact these resources have on their capacity to care for and manage their child's condition.

Fundamentals of estimating sample size.

Background: Estimating sample size is an integral requirement in the planning stages of quantitative studies. However, although abundant literature is available that describes techniques for calculating sample size, many are in-depth and have varying degrees of complexity.

Aim: To provide an overview of four basic parameters that underpin the determination of sample size and to explain sample-size estimation for three study designs common in nursing research.

Bereavement support used by mothers in Ireland following the death of their child from a life-limiting condition.

Background: Children's palliative care is a rapidly developing specialism internationally. Bereavement support is an integral component of children's palliative care but to date little research has investigated the bereavement support that mothers in Ireland use following the death of their child.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore mothers' experiences of bereavement support in Ireland following the death of their child from a life-limiting condition.

An evaluation of an interprofessional master's level programme in children's palliative care: The students' evaluation.

In 2010/12 an innovative children's palliative care interprofessional educational project funded by the Irish Hospice Foundation was undertaken in a University faculty (Trinity College Dublin). This initiative responded to international educational recommendations to meet the palliative care needs of children. The project involved the development and delivery of 3 standalone modules at Master's level and a substantive research evaluation of the project to examine stakeholders and students perspectives to provide an insight into their experiences and to gather data for future developments.

Developing an information leaflet on 22q11.2 deletion syndrome for parents to use with professionals during healthcare encounters.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to gather parents' expertise to inform an educational leaflet for parents to share with professionals caring for children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2 DS).

Awareness and minimisation of systematic bias in research.

A major goal of nursing and midwifery is the delivery of evidence-based practice. Consequently, it is essential for the quality and safety of patient/client care that policy makers, educators and practitioners are aware of the presence of potential systematic bias in research practice and research publications so that only sound evidence translates into practice. The main aim of this paper is to highlight the need for ongoing awareness of the potential presence of systematic bias in research practice, to explore commonly reported types of systematic bias and to report some methods that can be applied to minimise systematic bias in research.

'Going between worlds': Travelling with children with complex needs.

In this ethically approved hermeneutic phenomenological study conducted in Ireland, mothers' experiences in caring for children with complex needs were explored. The sample comprised mothers (n = 17) at home caring for children with complex needs. Data were analysed from multiple interviews (n = 48) and diary records (n = 11).

Neuropathic pain management in children.

There are difficulties in assessing, managing, and evaluating neuropathic pain in dying children, particularly those with neurological impairment. Neuropathic pain in children often presents differently to how it presents in the adult population. Comprehensive assessment as well as pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions are crucial to its successful management and frequently require input from an interdisciplinary team.

Explicating caregiving by mothers of children with complex needs in ireland: a phenomenological study.

This qualitative phenomenological study explored mothers' experiences of caring for a child with complex needs. After ethical approval was obtained, data were collected through 11 diaries and 48 interviews with 17 mothers in Ireland. Caring for a child with complex needs involves the delivery of care in an inside world of the home, the world outside the home, and a "going-between" world.

What are pre-registration nurses taught about caring for children?

Nurse education curricula have to be continually reviewed to ensure that content remains applicable to contemporary healthcare developments. In this article, the authors report the findings of a research study that investigated the children's nursing component taught in all non-children's BSc Nursing degree programmes in Irish colleges. The aim of the study was to identify how European Union directives and national curriculum guidelines are interpreted in colleges, and to clarify the preparation that non-children's pre-registration nursing students receive with respect to caring for children.

The experiences of providing children's palliative care education in undergraduate nursing programmes--a discussion of some practical issues.

Despite recent proliferation of palliative care services for children, and the fact that the needs of these children and their families are enshrined in current policy directives, the challenges of providing education for nurses within this area of practice is largely underexplored. This paper examines some of the key issues facing nurse educators who are involved in the delivery of palliative care content in undergraduate children's nursing programmes. Drawing on the extensive experiences of two nurse educators in children's palliative care education, research and practice, key issues which should be considered by those involved in curriculum development and delivery will be outlined.

Diaries as a method of data collection in research.

Diary records in healthcare research are becoming more common. This article describes the use of a diary as a method in which mothers' experiences of caring for children were explored in a hermeneutic phenomenological study or similar. Data for the original study were collected using three interviews and a diary recorded on three separate occasions.

Impact of childhood chronic illnesses on siblings: a literature review.

Background: Childhood illness can have a significant impact on families, particularly on the ill child's siblings. There is a dearth of published literature focusing on the needs of siblings of ill children.

Aim: This literature review aims to provide an overview of the current healthcare literature in relation to the impact of childhood chronic illness or disability on siblings.

The experiences of lecturers and students in the use of microteaching as a teaching strategy.

Within the literature on teaching in nursing there appears to be little attention paid to the use of microteaching to enhance learning. Its' use has been advocated by a number of authors, but for the novice teacher,there is little advice available on how to plan or implement a teaching session using this strategy. The purpose of this article is to report two lecturers' experiences of using microteaching to teach presentation skills to a group of student teachers.

Is there a place for reflective practice in the nursing curriculum?

Within this paper a review of the literature on the area of reflection and reflective practice is presented. Lecturers at Trinity College Dublin currently face a dilemma with regard to including these concepts in the nursing curricula. They are faced on the one hand with national recommendations for the use of reflection and reflective practice, and on the other with personal and professional concerns about the practical, legal, ethical and moral implications raised in teaching and assessing this subj ect.

The multifaceted influence of gender in career progress in nursing.

The complex web of gender influence in the workplace results from a multifaceted interplay of factors [Walby et al. (1994) Medicine and Nursing. Sage Publications, London].

Questioning: a tool in the nurse educator's kit.

Effective questioning is one of the most important teaching techniques and plays a crucial role in creating an effective learning environment. Yet, in nurse education little has been written about this technique or its importance. Most literature refers to the need for lecturers to be skilled in questioning, but less is written about how to develop this essential technique.

The impact of ongoing continuing professional development for nurses in the Republic of Ireland.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore and describe the stressors experienced by a group of 70 students who were undertaking a part-time degree in an Irish University.

Background: Within the literature on stress, part-time nursing students, who are undertaking continuing education programmes, appear to have received little attention. Stress amongst nurses is evident within the nursing literature but little information is available on the specific stressors that affect Registered Nurses who attend further academic study.

Ivolving mothers in research studies: practical considerations.

The experiences of a researcher undertaking a qualitative study exploring mothers' experiences of caring for children with complex needs are used to illustrate the practical and professional issues that can arise in such studies. These children require significant technical care for airway management, feeding, seizure management and personal care in the home. Given the pressures on their time, collecting data from the mothers in the home setting took at least twice as long as planned and required significant travel and time.

An exploratory study identifying the programme related stressors amongst qualified nurses completing part-time degree courses.

The aim of this paper is to explore the leading programmatic stressors and associated age related stressors experienced by two cohorts of students (n=132) completing part time degree programmes in nursing in two third level institutions in the Republic of Ireland. To date the literature has exclusively focused on the day to day stressors that undergraduate nursing student's experience. The design chosen was descriptive utilising a questionnaire as the mode of data collection.