Exploration of difficulty accessing the mouths of intubated and mechanically ventilated adults for oral care: A video and photographic elicitation study.

Aim: To explore descriptors of difficulty accessing the mouths of intubated and mechanically ventilated adults for oral care, consequences, modifiable antecedents and recommendations for improving care delivery.

Background: Nurses report oral access and care delivery difficulty in most mechanically ventilated patients.

Design: A prospective qualitative descriptive design.

"I Want to Help, but What Do You Do in a Situation Like That?" Health Care Providers' Qualitative Perspectives on Working with Disabled Women in Breast Cancer Screening.

Background: Disabled women find that social and physical discomforts during encounters with health providers pose barriers to breast cancer screening. We studied providers' perspectives and learning needs related to this problem in order to develop a disability education initiative.

Design: This was a descriptive qualitative study with focus group methods.

"It's Hard Work": A Feminist Political Economy Approach to Reconceptualizing "Work" in the Cancer Context.

Within mainstream cancer literature, policy documents, and clinical practice, "work" is typically characterized as being synonymous with paid employment, and the problem of work is situated within the "return to work" discourse. The work that patients perform in managing their health, care, and everyday life at times of illness, however, is largely overlooked and unsupported. Drawing on feminist political economy theory, we report on a qualitative study of 12 women living with cancer.

Gender matters in cardiac rehabilitation and diabetes: Using Bourdieu's concepts.

Background: Habitual practices are challenged by chronic illness. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) involves changes to habits of diet, activity and tobacco use, and although it is effective for people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD), some participants are reportedly less likely to complete programs and adopt new health related practices. Within the first three months of enrolling in CR, attrition rates are highest for women and for people with diabetes.

Transitions to End-of-Life Care for Patients With Chronic Critical Illness: A Meta-Synthesis.

Background: Adults with chronic critical illness (CCI) frequently experience a terminal trajectory but receive varying degrees of palliation and end-of-life care (EOLC) in intensive care units (ICUs). Why palliation (over curative treatment) is not augmented earlier for patients with CCI in ICU is not well understood.

Purpose: To identify the social structures that contribute to timely, context-dependent decisions for transition from acute care to EOLC for patients with CCI and their families.

Ethnographic Investigation of Oral Care in the Intensive Care Unit.

Background: Oral care plays a clear and important role in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia. However, few studies have explored the actual work of oral care by nurses in the intensive care unit.

Objective: To explore intensive care nurses' knowledge of and experiences with the delivery of oral care to reveal less visible aspects of this work.

A secondary meta-synthesis of qualitative studies of gender and access to cardiac rehabilitation.

Aims: To discuss issues in the theorization and study of gender observed during a qualitative meta-synthesis of influences on uptake of secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation services.

Background: Women and men can equally benefit from secondary prevention/cardiac rehabilitation and there is a need to understand gender barriers to uptake.

Design: Meta-method analysis secondary to meta-synthesis.

"I'm No Superman": Understanding Diabetic Men, Masculinity, and Cardiac Rehabilitation.

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs help patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) reduce their risk of recurrent cardiac illness, disability, and death. However, men with CHD and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) demonstrate lower attendance and completion of CR despite having a poor prognosis. Drawing on gender and masculinity theory, we report on a qualitative study of 16 Canadian diabetic men recently enrolled in CR.

Patient-centered care or cultural competence: negotiating palliative care at home for Chinese Canadian immigrants.

The literature about Chinese attitudes toward death and dying contains frequent references to strong taboos against open discussion about death; consequently, there is an assumption that dying at home is not the preferred option. This focused ethnographic study examined the palliative home care experiences of 4 Chinese immigrants with terminal cancer, their family caregivers, and home care nurses and key informant interviews with 11 health care providers. Three main themes emerged: (1) the many facets of taboo; (2) discursive tensions between patient-centered care and cultural competence; and (3) rethinking language barriers.

Women's strategies to achieve access to healthcare in Ontario, Canada: a meta-synthesis.

As part of a mixed methods study on women's access to the healthcare system in Ontario, Canada, we undertook a qualitative meta-synthesis to better understand the contextual conditions under which women access healthcare. An earlier phase of the synthesis demonstrated a series of factors that complicate women's access to healthcare in Ontario. Here, we consider women's agency in responding to these factors.

Diabetes care and mental illness: the social organization of food in a residential care facility.

Objective: To explore the social organization of food provision and dietary intake in seriously mentally ill people with diabetes who reside in a for-profit group home.

Methods: Institutional ethnography was used to explore diabetes-related care practices among 26 women in a rural residential care facility in southern Ontario. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with residents with diabetes, care providers, field workers, and health professionals.

Maintaining distance from a necessary intrusion: a postcolonial perspective on dying at home for Chinese immigrants in Toronto, Canada.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe and examine how meanings of home condition negotiations of care for Chinese immigrants with advanced cancer receiving palliative home care in Toronto, Canada.

Method: This focused ethnographic study drew on the tenets of postcolonial theory to examine the social and material circumstances associated with dying at home for Chinese immigrants. Eleven key informants were recruited, in addition to 4 cases comprised of a Chinese immigrant care recipient, primary family caregiver, and home visiting nurse.

Factors influencing participation in cardiac rehabilitation programmes after referral and initial attendance: qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis.

Background: Greater participation in cardiac rehabilitation improves morbidity and mortality in people with coronary heart disease, but little is understood of patients' decisions to participate.

Methods: To develop interventions aimed at increasing completion of programmes, we conducted a qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis to explore the complex factors and processes influencing participation in cardiac rehabilitation programmes after referral and initial access. To be included in the review, studies had to contain a qualitative research component, population specific data on programme participation in adults >18 years, and be published ≥1995 as full articles or theses.

Choosing nursing as a career: a narrative analysis of Millennial nurses' career choice of virtue.

The growth and sustainability of the nursing profession depends on the ability to recruit and retain the upcoming generation of professionals. Understanding the career choice experiences and professional expectations of Millennial nurses (born 1980 or after) is a critical component of recruitment and retention strategies. This study utilized Polkinghorne's interpretive, narrative approach to understand how Millennial nurses explain, account for and make sense of their choice of nursing as a career.

Beyond barriers in studying disparities in women's access to health services in Ontario, Canada: a qualitative metasynthesis.

Women live within complex and differing social, economic, and environmental circumstances that influence options to seek health care. In this article we report on a metasynthesis of qualitative research concerning access disparities for women in the Canadian province of Ontario, where there is a publicly funded health care system. We took a metastudy approach to analysis of results from 35 relevant qualitative articles to understand the conditions and conceptualizations of women's inequitable access to health care.

A qualitative systematic review of influences on attendance at cardiac rehabilitation programs after referral.

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention programs can prevent heart disease in high-risk populations. However, up to half of all patients referred to these programs do not subsequently participate. Although age, sex, and social factors are common predictors of attendance, to increase attendance rates after referral, the complex range of factors and processes influencing attendance needs to be better understood.

Mouth care for orally intubated patients: a critical ethnographic review of the nursing literature.

Objectives: The aim of this critical ethnographic literature review was to explore the evolution of nursing discourse in oral hygiene for intubated and mechanically ventilated patients.

Methods: The online databases CINAHL and MEDLINE were searched for nurse-authored English language articles published between 1960 and 2011 in peer-reviewed journals. Articles that did not discuss oral problems or related care for intubated adult patients were excluded.

Exploring ways to overcome barriers to mammography uptake and retention among South Asian immigrant women.

South Asians comprise one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in North America. Evidence indicates that South Asian (SA) immigrant women are vulnerable to low rates of breast cancer screening. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge pertaining to socioculturally tailored strategies to guide the uptake of screening mammography in the SA community.

"I can't just follow any particular textbook": immigrants in cardiac rehabilitation.

Aim: The study purpose was to examine how and under what circumstances immigrants combine diabetes self-care with cardiac rehabilitation recommendations.

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation can improve and lengthen life in people with coronary heart disease as it promotes healthy physical and psychosocial behaviours and outcomes. This study is the first to examine the convergence of two common issues on participation: (1) the problems posed when cardiac rehabilitation patients must also contend with type II diabetes and (2) the experiences of immigrants in cardiac rehabilitation.

Respect in forensic psychiatric nurse-patient relationships: a practical compromise.

The context of forensic psychiatric nursing is distinct from other psychiatric settings as, it involves placement of patients in secure environments with restrictions determined by the courts. Previous literature has identified that nurses morally struggle with respecting patients who have committed heinous offences, which can lead to the patient being depersonalized and dehumanized. Although respect is fundamental to ethical nursing practice, it has not been adequately explored conceptually or empirically.

Patients' discharge experiences: returning home after open-heart surgery.

Purpose: This study explored patients' narratives of technology in heart surgery and recovery.

Methods: A narrative inquiry was conducted with a sample of 16 individuals. Interviews were completed 2 to 4 days after transfer from cardiovascular intensive care, and 4 to 6 weeks after discharge.

Patients' narrative accounts of open-heart surgery and recovery: authorial voice of technology.

In this narrative inquiry, we examined patients' experiential accounts of technology in open-heart surgery and recovery. A convenience sample of sixteen individuals was recruited from a preoperative clinic at a regional centre for cardiac services in Canada. Each participated in two interviews following transfer from cardiovascular intensive care and 4-6 weeks post discharge from the hospital.

Context and cardiovascular risk modification in two regions of Ontario, Canada: a photo elicitation study.

Cardiovascular diseases, which include coronary heart diseases (CHD), remain the leading cause of death in Canada and other industrialized countries. This qualitative study used photo-elicitation, focus groups and in-depth interviews to understand health behaviour change from the perspectives of 38 people who were aware of their high risk for CHD and had received information about cardiovascular risk modification while participating in a larger intervention study. Participants were drawn from two selected regions: Sudbury and District (northern Ontario) and the Greater Toronto Area (southern Ontario).