The effect of hospital size and teaching status on patient experiences with hospital care: a multilevel analysis.

Background: Hospitals rapidly change structure and organization. Little research has been conducted that documents whether hospital size and teaching status is associated with patient experiences.

Objectives: We sought to assess the effect of hospital size and teaching status on patient experiences with hospital care.

Satisfied patients are also vulnerable patients--narratives from an acute care ward.

Aim: To illuminate the experience of being a patient and cared for in an acute care ward.

Background: Patients may be the best source of information for assessing the quality of care in acute care wards. Studies often show that patients' satisfaction with their hospital stay is interpreted by managers and care providers as a measure for quality of care.

Nurses' information management at patients' discharge from hospital to home care.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare hospital and home care nurses' assessment of their information management at patients' discharge from hospital to home care before and after the hospital implemented an electronic nursing discharge note.

Theory: This paper draws on the concept of inter-organizational continuity of care, and specifically addresses the contribution of the implementation of an electronic patient record (EPR).

Methods: The study has a prospective descriptive design.

Assessment of everyday functioning in young children with disabilities: an ICF-based analysis of concepts and content of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI).

Background: Assessment of everyday functioning in children may depend to a considerable extent on the framework used to conceptualise functioning and disability. The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) has incorporated the mediating role of the environment on disability, using different measurement scales. The construction of the Functional Skills scales, which measure capability, and the Caregiver Assistance scales, which measure performance, was based on the Nagi disablement scheme.

Patient information at discharge--a study of a combined approach.

Objective: To describe patients' perceptions of a new information procedure related to going home after urological surgery. This procedure, developed in an action research project, included a discharge talk with the nurse and an information booklet for the patients to keep.

Methods: A convenience sample of 99 patients responded to a survey sent home 1 week after discharge (return 78.

Information handling in the nursing discharge note.

Aims: The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it describes hospital nurses' general use of the language function in the nursing discharge notes of patients who will require posthospital home health care. Secondly, it addresses the similarities and differences in completeness, structure and content between paper and electronic nursing discharge notes.

A description of healthcare providers' perceptions of the needs of significant others in intensive care units in Norway and Sweden.

Healthcare providers (registered nurses, physicians and enrolled nurses) at intensive care units (ICU) in Norway and Sweden participated in a survey, the purpose of which was to investigate their perceptions of the needs of critically ill adult patients' significant others based on the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI). Four categories were revealed through qualitative content analysis of handwritten responses to the open ended item. 'The need to feel trust in the healthcare providers' ability' and 'the need for ICU and other hospital resources' had the highest response frequency and, together with the category 'the need to be prepared for the consequences of critical illness', confirmed factors revealed in previous statistical analysis that employed this structured tool.

Thriving in nursing homes in Norway: contributing aspects described by residents.

Background And Objectives: Knowledge about residents' perception of what contributes to well-being and thriving in nursing homes is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate mentally lucid residents' perspective on what contributes to thriving in a nursing home.

Design: A qualitative study with a descriptive-exploratory design.

Resident-caregiver relationships and thriving among nursing home residents.

The purpose of this study was to describe nursing home residents' experiences and perceptions of relationships with caregivers and to explore their importance to thriving. Data were collected through field observations and open-ended interviews with 26 residents. Receiving appropriate care from kind caregivers made life easier for all residents but contributed to thriving only for some.

A philosophical analysis of the concept empowerment; the fundament of an education-programme to the frail elderly.

The word 'empowerment' has become a popular term, widely used as an important claim, also within the health services. In this paper the concept's philosophical roots are traced from Freire and his 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' to the philosophical thoughts of Hegel, Habermas, and Sartre. An understanding of the concept, as a way to facilitate coping and well-being in patients through reflection and dialogue, emerges.

Nurses' information management across complex health care organizations.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to describe the information management used by hospital and home care nurses for patients in need of continuing care after an episode of hospitalization.

Method: A prospective descriptive design was used. In total 287 hospital nurses and 220 home care nurses were asked to complete a questionnaire before and after the hospital implemented nursing documentation integrated in the electronic patient record (EPR).

Inter-organizational continuity of care and the electronic patient record: a concept development.

There is an expectation that the use of electronic patient records will contribute to continuity of care across organizations for the growing number of elderly and chronically ill people who need continuing nursing care after an episode of hospitalization. This article aims to explore the concept of inter-organizational continuity of care and to address the contribution, expectations and promises associated with the advent of the electronic patient record. A content analysis of the literature concerning concept development provided a model which indicates that inter-organizational continuity is a multidimensional concept, comprising individual and organizational perspectives with qualitative and quantitative properties.

Relationships between neuromuscular functioning, disability and pain in fibromyalgia.

Purpose: Fibromyalgia (FM) is associated with pain and alterations in neuromuscular properties and function. A common belief is that these neuromuscular changes are a major cause of limitations in activities or restrictions in participation. The paper aims at examining the basis for such an understanding.

Effects of shoulder arthroplasty and exercise in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The aim of this study was to examine pain and shoulder function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) before and after shoulder arthroplasty and postoperative exercise. Twenty-four patients (26 shoulders) were consecutively included in a multicentre study. Before surgery, at discharge from hospital and after 3 and 6 months, perceived shoulder function and shoulder pain were assessed by visual analogue scales, activities of daily living by the Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (M-HAQ) and shoulder range of motion (ROM) by a goniometer.

Comparing Norwegian nurses' and physicians' perceptions of the needs of significant others in intensive care units.

Aim And Objectives: To illuminate and compare the perceptions of registered nurses (n = 243) and physicians (n = 29) in medical and surgical ICUs for adults on the needs of significant others.

Background: Previous studies have established the necessity for healthcare professionals in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) to identify and meet the needs of critically ill adult patients' significant others.

Design: A survey was conducted and data from the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Challenging the information gap--the patients transfer from hospital to home health care.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this paper is to identify the information that nurses in hospitals exchange with nurses in home health care (HHC), and what nurses perceive to be the most significant information to exchange.

Method: Nurses have an obligation to support and ensure continuity of patient care and to prevent an information gap when patients are transferred from one organizational of health care delivery to another organizational level, for example, from hospital to home health care. In an ongoing prospective study, nurses' pre-electronic nursing discharge note and their assessment of the information it was necessary to exchange at the same time was audited and analyzed.