Values and strategies: management of radical organizational change in a university hospital.

Managers' experiences of radical change were studied in a Norwegian university hospital, which was relocated from a traditional building to a new, high-tech building. The university hospital was also accredited as a health promoting hospital. Thirteen managers at different levels in the organization and a personnel safety representative were interviewed as part of a trailing research project.

A Riemannian geometry theory of human movement: The geodesic synergy hypothesis.

Mass-inertia loads on muscles change with posture and with changing mechanical interactions between the body and the environment. The nervous system must anticipate changing mass-inertia loads, especially during fast multi-joint coordinated movements. Riemannian geometry provides a mathematical framework for movement planning that takes these inertial interactions into account.

Is there an association between the level of grandiose narcissism severity of psychopathology?

Background: Narcissism is a personality trait associated with both psychological health and resilience as well as with aggression and interpersonal problems.

Aim: This study compares levels of total narcissism and subscale scores in inpatients, outpatients and a community sample.

Methods: Inpatients (N = 186) were recruited from consecutively admitted patients to two closed units, and the outpatient group (N = 144) consisted of patients attending a psychiatric outpatient clinic.

Meanings of knowledge and identity in public health nursing in a time of transition: interpretations of public health nurses' narratives.

Background: A changing healthcare system affects the professional identity of nursing groups. Public health nursing has experienced challenges in balancing the paternalistic expert ideology and the empowerment participation ideology. A strong professional identity can legitimate nursing, and possibly influence the quality of nursing work.

Exploring Diversity among Norwegian Borrelia Strains Originating from Ixodes ricinus Ticks.

Characterisation of Borrelia strains from Ixodes ricinus ticks is important in the epidemiological surveillance of vector-borne pathogens. Multilocus sequences analysis (MLSA) is a molecular genotyping tool with high discriminatory power that has been applied in evolutionary studies and for the characterisation of Borrelia genospecies. MLSA was used to study genetic variations in Borrelia strains isolated from I.

Prevalence and Diversity among Anaplasma phagocytophilum Strains Originating from Ixodes ricinus Ticks from Northwest Norway.

The tick-borne pathogen Anaplasma phagocytophilum causes great concern for livestock farmers. Tick-borne fever is a widespread disease in Norway, and antibodies have been produced amongst sheep, roe deer, red deer, and moose. The main vector Ixodes ricinus is found along the Norwegian coastline as far north as the Arctic Circle.

Next of kin of cancer patients - challenges in the situation and experiences from a next of kin course.

Purpose: To gain more knowledge about the challenges facing the next of kin of cancer patients and how a cognitive-based course for these next of kin helps them handling the challenges they are facing.

Methods: Focus groups were used to explore the experiences, thoughts, and perceptions of the next of kin about specific challenges and their participation in the course. A thematic content analytical approach was used.

Development and validation of Neonatal Satisfaction Survey--NSS-13.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a survey to investigate parents' satisfaction with neonatal wards in a population of parents of children with a gestation age of ≥24 weeks to 3 months after full-term birth.

Method: We explored the literature and conducted three focus groups: two with expert health personnel and one with parents. We tested the survey in a parent population (N = 105) and report the different stages in the validation process along with the full survey, the Neonatal Satisfaction Survey - 13 categories (NSS-13).

A comparison of the discursive practices of perception of patient participation in haemodialysis units.

Background: According to Norwegian law, nurses are obligated to provide an acceptable level of health assistance to patients and their family members and to allow patients and their family members to participate in the planning of patient care and treatment.

Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the perceptions of older patients undergoing haemodialysis treatment and of their next of kin and of nurses regarding patient participation in the context of haemodialysis treatment.

Research Design: The study adopts an approach that is both comparative and explorative in nature by examining the narratives of patients, nurses and next of kin and by performing critical discourse analysis as outlined by Fairclough.

How do patients with exacerbated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease experience care in the intensive care unit?

The aim was to gain insight into how patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience care in the acute phase. The study has a qualitative design with a phenomenological approach. The empirics consist of qualitative in-depth interviews with ten patients admitted to the intensive care units in two Norwegian hospitals.

DGGE Identification of Microorganisms Associated with Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato- or Anaplasma phagocytophilum-Infected Ixodes ricinus Ticks from Northwest Norway.

Ticks acquire a wide range of microorganisms as a natural part of their lifecycle. Bacteria, viruses, and protozoa can be transmitted to ticks during feeding and free-living phases. DGGE profiling is a molecular method to describe the microbial population associated with ticks and demonstrate some of the complexity and variety of tick-borne microorganisms.

The meaning of ethically charged encounters and their possible influence on professional identity in Norwegian public health nursing: a phenomenological hermeneutic study.

Background: In today's health care, new health reforms focus on market values and demands of efficiency influence health workers' professional practice. Norwegian public health nurses work mainly with healthy populations, but the children, families and young people they meet can be in vulnerable and even dependent situations. Strategies in coping with ethically challenging encounters can be important for the identity of the profession.

At the mercy of others--for better or worse.

Many elderly people spend their remaining days in nursing homes and are thus affected by issues pertaining to a good life in a nursing home. The Norwegian study presented in this article aimed to gain greater knowledge and understanding of the significant factors associated with a good life in a nursing home. Qualitative in-depth interviews with six nursing home residents aged 80 to 96 years were conducted to collect data.

Perceived humiliation during admission to a psychiatric emergency service and its relation to socio-demography and psychopathology.

Background: There is a lack of empirical studies of patients' level of humiliation during the hospital admission process and its implications for the clinical setting. We wanted to explore associations between self-rated humiliation and socio-demography and psychopathology in relation to admission to a psychiatric emergency unit.

Methods: Consecutively admitted patients (N = 186) were interviewed with several validated instruments.

Contradictory discourses of health promotion and disease prevention in the educational curriculum of Norwegian public health nursing: a critical discourse analysis.

Aims: Health care is under constant change creating new and demanding tasks for public health nurses. The curriculum for public health nursing students is controlled by governmental directives that decide the structure and content of their education. This paper analyses manifest and latent discourses in the curriculum, in order to reveal underlying governmental principles for how public health nurses should promote health and prevent diseases.

Narratives of breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Aims And Objectives: To explore patient perceptions of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation and the patients' experiences of their relations with health personnel during care and treatment.

Background: Patients suffering from acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often experience life-threatening situations and undergo noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation via bi-level positive airway pressure in a hospital setting. Theory on trust, which often overlaps with the issue of power, can shed light on patient's experiences during an acute exacerbation.

Quality, efficiency and integrity: value squeezes in management of hospital wards.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore and describe the value squeezes experienced by ward managers in connection with quality management in hospital wards. The study focused on integrity pressure and coping strategies to deal with such pressure.

Background: Nurses in the role of ward managers have a key function in the field of quality improvement.

Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, and Borrelia valaisiana in Ixodes ricinus ticks from the northwest of Norway.

Objectives: Over a 3-y period, Ixodes ricinus ticks were randomly collected to study the prevalence of 4 Borrelia species: B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. afzelii, B.

Transmission dynamics of pancreas disease (PD) in a Norwegian fjord: aspects of water transport, contact networks and infection pressure among salmon farms.

Pancreas disease (PD) in marine salmon farming is caused by salmon pancreas disease virus (SPDV). Virus survival, infection pressure and contact networks among farms influence the potential of PD to spread. The present study aims to explore contact networks and infection pressure and their ability to explain transmission dynamics of PD in a Norwegian fjord.

The influence of the learning climate on learning outcomes from Marte Meo counselling in dementia care.

Aim:   To identify factors that affected the learning outcomes from Marte Meo counselling (MMC).

Background:   Although MMC has shown promising results regarding learning outcomes for staff working in dementia-specific care units, the outcomes differ.

Method:   Twelve individual interviews and four focus group interviews with staff who had participated in MMC were analysed through a qualitative content analysis.

The role of next of kin of patients with cancer: learning to navigate unpredictable caregiving situations.

Aims And Objectives: The aims of this study are to develop knowledge about (1) the experiences of next of kin in caring for seriously ill patients with cancer and (2) the effects of strain and support on the next of kin's ability to cope.

Background: Better treatment has resulted in patients with cancer normally living longer. Because this treatment is typically administered in a polyclinic or at home, next of kin inherit the largely unknown and demanding role of caregiver.

Organizational health in health organizations: towards a conceptualization.

This article is introducing a new concept of organizational health and discussing its possible implications for health organizations and health management. The concept is developed against the background of New Public Management, which has coincided with increasing workplace health problems in health organizations. It is based on research mainly in health promotion and health management.

Intensive care unit nurses' perceptions of patient participation in the acute phase of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation: an interview study.

Aim: To report a study conducted to explore intensive care unit nurses' perceptions of patient participation in the acute phase of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation.

Background: An acute exacerbation is a life-threatening situation, which patients often consider to be extremely frightening. Healthcare personnel exercise considerable power in this situation, which challenges general professional notions of patient participation.

Nurses' perceptions of patient participation in hemodialysis treatment.

The aim of this study is to explore how nurses perceive patient participations of patients over 75 years old undergoing hemodialysis treatment in dialysis units, and of their next of kin. Ten nurses told stories about what happened in the dialysis units. These stories were analyzed with critical discourse analysis.

The next of kin of older people undergoing haemodialysis: a discursive perspective on perceptions of participation.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study conducted to explore how the family members of older people who will undergo haemodialysis treatment for the rest of their lives perceive participation.

Background: The rights of families to participate in treatment and health care are supported by international law, and by national law in Norway since 1999.

Method: This study, which employed an explorative qualitative approach, was carried out in Norway in 2008.