Journal of clinical nursing
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This paper explores the proposition that nursing practice draws upon several different ways of knowing. It highlights difficulties often faced by practising nurses in defining what they do and hence what it is that constitutes nursing practice. ⋯ The types of knowledge required to enhance nursing practice are discussed, focusing upon future opportunities and innovations in the generation of knowledge for nursing. Finally, recommendations are made regarding the way forward for nurses endeavouring to communicate the complexities of nursing practice.
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As part of trust-wide practice development project to improve post-operative pain management, a descriptive study was conducted in the orthopaedic directorate of a large teaching hospital in the north of England. Sixty-five patients were included in this prospective study. Patients were interviewed post-operatively about their pain experience, and present and worst pain scores were recorded. ⋯ Reliance on pharmacological methods of pain relief was evident and interventions to help patients cope with night time pain were rarely documented. The results are discussed in light of a theoretical framework for acute pain management and current research. Implications for practice are discussed and areas for further research are suggested.
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The aim of this study is to explore and describe the new mother's experiences of postpartum care. It is part of an ongoing clinical longitudinal research project studying experiences of health, suffering and care and the organizational culture of Finnish maternity care. Postpartum care is seldom either technological or dramatic and has been shown to take low priority in both practice and research. ⋯ Other new mothers are caring towards the woman reciprocally, sharing the same situation, helping one another and learning together. Three challenges in postpartum care emerge from this study. These are to understand the meaning of caring, to involve family and other new mothers more consciously, and to see the woman as a new mother who needs both to care and be cared for both by her family and friends and by professional carers.
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This paper describes one part of a major study aimed at building a substantive theory of the triage process. The paper reports on some early findings of a major component of the reasoning strategy utilized by nurses when making triage decisions via the telephone. ⋯ This forms the basis of the nurses' assessment of the urgency of the problem. The properties that contribute to this process of 'visualization work' are presented and the linkages with current thought in relation to clinical reasoning are explored.
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The refinement of a patient assessment tool for older patients, Lorensen's Self-Care Capability Scale, is described where a systematic elicitation of patient preferences is included in the assessment. This study tests a decision analytic approach as a strategy for formalizing subjective judgement, which makes it possible to include patients' own values and preferences in planning patient care. ⋯ This pilot study supported the merit of including patient preferences systematically in the assessment of older patients. The method provides an important decision aid for nurses in planning nursing care in accordance with patients' own values and preferences for care.