Trends in mortality risks among 94,328 patients surviving 30days after a first isolated coronary artery bypass graft procedure from 1987 to 2006: A population-based study.

Background: Updated knowledge about survival after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is needed. We examined 20-year trends in 4-year survival after a first isolated CABG procedure, compared with that of the general population.

Methods: We identified 94,328 patients surviving 30days after a first isolated CABG 1987-2006 from the Swedish Inpatient Register.

Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on symptoms and signs in chronic heart failure: A feasibility study.

Aims: Despite treatment recommended by guidelines, many patients with chronic heart failure remain symptomatic. Evidence is accumulating that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have beneficial psychological and physiological effects. The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of MBI on symptoms and signs in patients with chronic heart failure in outpatient clinical settings.

Long-term secondary prevention of acute myocardial infarction (SEPAT) - guidelines adherence and outcome.

Background: A number of registry studies have reported suboptimal adherence to guidelines for cardiovascular prevention during the first year after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, only a few studies have addressed long-term secondary prevention after AMI. This study evaluates prevention guideline adherence and outcome of guideline-directed secondary prevention in patients surviving 2 years after AMI.

Differences in Symptom Distress Based on Gender and Palliative Care Designation Among Hospitalized Patients.

Purpose: To explore patient-reported symptom distress in relation to documentation of symptoms and palliative care designation in hospital inpatients.

Design: This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 710 inpatients at two large hospitals in Sweden using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale and the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. Chart reviews focused on nurses' and physicians' symptom documentation and palliative turning point.

Continuity means "preserving a consistent whole"--A grounded theory study.

Living with a chronic disease like chronic heart failure (CHF) results in disruptions, losses, and setbacks in the participants' daily lives that affect health and well-being. By using grounded theory method, we illuminate whether persons with CHF experience discontinuity in life and, if so, what helps them to preserve and strengthen continuity in their daily lives. Thirteen individual interviews and one group interview with five participants, aged 62 to 88 years, were carried out.

Women's help-seeking behaviour during a first acute myocardial infarction.

Studies indicate that the time from onset of symptoms to medical treatment has decreased in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, there are still variations indicating that women wait longer than men before making the decision to seek medical care. Multidimensional factors hindering and facilitating the decision have been identified in previous studies, though few have fully explored how social context affects women's expectations, interpretations and actions and so influences the decision-making process.

Health Promotion Can Postpone Frailty: Results from the RCT Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone.

Objective: Very old persons (80+) are often described as "frail", implying that they are particularly vulnerable to adverse health outcomes. Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone was designed to determine whether a preventive home visit or multiprofessional senior group meetings could postpone deterioration in frailty if the intervention is carried out when the person is not so frail.

Design And Sample: The study was a RCT with follow-ups at 1 and 2 years.

When practice precedes theory - A mixed methods evaluation of students' learning experiences in an undergraduate study program in nursing.

A key area for consideration is determining how optimal conditions for learning can be created. Higher education in nursing aims to prepare students to develop their capabilities to become independent professionals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of sequencing clinical practice prior to theoretical studies on student's experiences of self-directed learning readiness and students' approach to learning in the second year of a three-year undergraduate study program in nursing.

Psychometric analysis of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory in a sample of persons treated for myocardial infarction.

Background And Purpose: Fatigue after myocardial infarction is a frequent and distressing symptom in the early recovery phase. The purpose of this study is to psychometrically evaluate the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20).

Methods: The MFI-20 was evaluated using Rasch analysis.

Effects of chewing gum against postoperative ileus after pancreaticoduodenectomy--a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Postoperative ileus is common after surgery. One non-pharmacological intervention that has shown promising results in reducing the duration of postoperative ileus is chewing gum after surgery. However, this has not been investigated in upper gastrointestinal surgery such as pancreatic surgery.

Health-care encounters create both discontinuity and continuity in daily life when living with chronic heart failure-A grounded theory study.

Living with chronic heart failure (CHF) often involves lifelong contact with health care, more or less frequently, depending on fluctuating health-generating disruptions in everyday life. To reduce the influence on continuity in life, health-care professionals should preferably focus on supporting patients in managing their daily lives, based on their perspective. The aim of this study was to describe how the interaction in health-care encounters contributes to either continuity or discontinuity in the daily life for persons with CHF.

Symptom distress profiles in hospitalized patients in Sweden: a cross-sectional study.

Symptom distress profiles of patients with a variety of diagnoses at two hospitals in Sweden were examined using a point-prevalence cross-sectional survey design. The sample included 710 patients present on internal medicine, surgery, geriatric, and oncology acute care hospital wards of each hospital on a single day. Symptom distress data were collected via structured interviews using a 0-10 numeric rating scale (NRS).

Extensive human suffering: a point prevalence survey of patients' most distressing concerns during inpatient care.

Aim: To explore patients' most distressing concerns during a hospital stay.

Background: The characteristics of hospitalised patients have changed. Care is provided at a higher age, lengths of stay have fallen and the nursing workload is increasing.

Experiences and actions during the decision making process among men with a first acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Previous studies have shown that people hesitate to seek medical attention when experiencing the initial symptoms of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but the reasons why and the events underpinning the decision-making process are unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the actions and experiences involved in the process of seeking medical attention in men with a first AMI.

Methods: We studied 21 men, aged 39-73 years, hospitalized with a first AMI between May 2011 and March 2013.

Positive health outcomes following health-promoting and disease-preventive interventions for independent very old persons: long-term results of the three-armed RCT Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone.

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to analyze the long-term effect of the two health-promoting and disease-preventive interventions, preventive home visits and senior meetings, with respect to morbidity, symptoms, self-rated health and satisfaction with health. The study was a three-armed randomized, single-blind, and controlled trial, with follow-ups at one and two years after interventions. A total of 459 persons aged 80 years or older and still living at home were included in the study.

Nursing students' experiences of involvement in clinical research: an exploratory study.

Background: Nursing education can positively affect nurses' attitudes toward nursing research, resulting in better patient outcomes. Experiential learning theory was the basis for this study.

Objectives: To explore nursing students' experiences of involvement in clinical research, their approach to learning and their interest in nursing research.

Health Is Belonging: Lived Experiences during Recovery after Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

The aim of this study was to explore the lived experience of the symptoms, health, and illness reported by patients recovering after pancreaticoduodenectomy ad modum Whipple due to pancreatic or periampullary cancer. Thirteen patients with pancreatic or periampullary cancer who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy ad modum Whipple between 2006 and 2008 were interviewed during postoperative recovery. Data were analysed using the phenomenological-hermeneutic method.

A sense of home in residential care.

Moving into a residential care facility requires a great deal of adjustment to an environment and lifestyle entirely different from that of one's previous life. Attachment to place is believed to help create a sense of home and maintain self-identity, supporting successful adjustment to contingencies of ageing. The purpose of this study was to deepen our understanding of processes and strategies by which older people create a sense of home in residential care.

Multi-professional and multi-dimensional group education--a key to action in elderly persons.

Purpose: This study was intended to evaluate a multi-professional health-promoting and disease-preventive intervention organized as multi-professional senior group meetings, which addressed home-dwelling, independently living, cognitively intact elderly persons (80±), by exploring the participants' experiences of the intervention.

Method: The focus group methodology was used to interview a total of 20 participants. The informants had participated in four multi-professional senior group meetings at which information about the ageing process and preventive strategies for enhancing health were discussed.

Impact of device-guided slow breathing on symptoms of chronic heart failure: a randomized, controlled feasibility study.

Aims: In many patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) even normal daily life activities cause dyspnoea and fatigue, well-being might be considerably improved by even a modest decrease in such symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate if lowering breathing rate with the help of a respiratory modulation (RM) device could improve symptoms in patients with CHF.

Methods And Results: Stable CHF patients with symptoms of dyspnoea were randomized to twice-daily 20 min sessions using an RM device or to music listening (ML) using a CD player, for a 4-week study period.

Fatigue in patients with chronic heart failure - a burden associated with emotional and symptom distress.

Background: The relationship between experience of fatigue and emotional and symptom distress in chronic heart failure (CHF) needs to be thoroughly explored, because fatigue has major impact on daily activities in life.

Aims: The purpose was to examine the association between fatigue, as a multidimensional experience and anxiety, depression and symptom distress, and to explore the relationships between individual symptoms and the dimensions of fatigue in patients with CHF.

Methods: A consecutive sample of 112 patients with exacerbation of symptoms of CHF answered the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20), the Hospital Depression and Anxiety (HAD) Scale and the Symptom Distress Scale (SDS).

Breaking the vicious circle of fatigue in patients with chronic heart failure.

Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Characteristics of the experience and consequences of fatigue might be unique in these patients. The authors interviewed 15 patients with CHF and analyzed focused online observations of the content discussed in an Internet patient discussion group concerning CHF using grounded theory.

Fatigue is a prevalent and severe symptom associated with uncertainty and sense of coherence in patients with chronic heart failure.

Introduction: Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and has a major impact on their daily life activities. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and severity of fatigue, conceptualized as a multiple dimensional symptom, and to determine the influence of sense of coherence and uncertainty on the fatigue experience in patients with CHF.

Methods: Ninety-three consecutive patients, hospitalized with a diagnosis of CHF, completed the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory Scale (MFI-20), Cardiovascular Population Scale (CPS), and Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC) and were classified according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification criteria.

Fatigue and anaemia in patients with chronic heart failure.

Background: Fatigue is common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and has great impact on functional ability and daily activity. Although anaemia is associated with fatigue, the relationship between fatigue and anaemia is unclear in CHF. The aim of this study was to describe the fatigue experience and its relationship to haemoglobin (Hb) concentration and to evaluate its effect on health-related quality of life in an unselected hospitalised CHF population.

Academic nursing education guidelines: tool for bridging the gap between theory, research and practice.

The aim of the present study was to develop educational guidelines to be used as a tool for the integration of theory, research and practice to ensure that nursing knowledge and practical skills form the basis of academic nursing education. An additional aim was to describe the nursing competence expected of the students at four academic levels: introductory, intermediate and advanced levels I and II. Clinical nursing education plays a crucial role in assisting nursing students to integrate the theory and practice of nursing at the baccalaureate level, as well as in further specialization and in-depth nursing studies at the advanced level.