Journal of advanced nursing
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This paper reports on structures and processes of hospital care influencing 30-day mortality for acute medical patients. ⋯ Just as hospitals and clinicians caring for patients focus carefully on completing accurate diagnosis and appropriate and effective interventions, so too should hospitals carefully plan and manage structures and processes of care such as the proportion of Registered Nurses in the staff mix, percentage of baccalaureate-prepared nurses, and routine use of care maps to minimize unnecessary patient death.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse themes from accounts of nurses' experiences with advocacy that may expand our understanding of advocacy in nursing practice. ⋯ The application of advocacy in nursing practice is complex. The philosophy of relational ethics emphasizes the contextual features of relationships. An examination of relational ethics as it applies to advocacy in nursing brings us closer to a deeper understanding of the process by which nurses make advocacy choices in practice, and raises implications for the development of advocacy in nurses' practice. Advocacy is universally considered a moral obligation in nursing practice, and thus advancement of our knowledge about its nature in nursing is relevant to nursing across multiple contexts and cultures.
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This paper reports a grounded theory study of the influence of gender on older people's perceptions of their risk of falling and their actions to prevent future falls. ⋯ Nurses and other healthcare professionals need to take account of the gendered meanings attached to falling by older men and women when carrying out risk assessments and giving advice on fall prevention.
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This paper reports a study to assess the palliative care needs of the adult population served by a healthcare provider organization in Northern Ireland from the perspectives of patients, informal carers and healthcare providers. ⋯ All patients, regardless of diagnosis, should be able to access palliative care appropriate to their individual needs. For this to happen in practice, an integrated approach to palliative care is essential. The study methodology confirms the value of developing a comprehensive approach to assessing palliative care need.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effectiveness of turning with unequal time intervals on the incidence of pressure ulcer lesions.
This paper reports a study investigating whether repositioning patients lying on a pressure-reducing mattress alternately for 2 hours in a lateral position and 4 hours in a supine position reduces the incidence of pressure ulcers in comparison with repositioning every 4 hours. ⋯ More frequent repositioning on a pressure-reducing mattress does not necessarily lead to fewer pressure ulcer lesions and consequently cannot be considered as a more effective preventive measure.