International journal of nursing studies
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Although it is very important to clarify the factors influencing the patients' and nurses' satisfaction with nursing services, very little research has been performed in this area. ⋯ The performance was relatively lower than expectations, resulting in poor nursing care quality. Differences between expectations and performance for both patients and nurses need to be further reduced.
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Addressing workforce issues has increasingly become a central feature of the organisation and management of public sector services internationally. The introduction of new work roles to public services is one approach advocated in response to recruitment and retention difficulties with professional staff and to increasingly complex services. This paper aims to critically examine UK's new roles policy in a health care context and explore its wider relevance by drawing on findings from an action research Ph. ⋯ This deliberately flexible role was held by individuals without a recognised qualification but study findings illustrate that, over the time, the role came to include the complex discharge planning work with patients previously carried out by registered nurses (RNs). The analysis presented highlights shortcomings in current new roles policy including the unacknowledged influence of competing policy goals; the erroneous assumption that defining who does what is clear-cut in practice; the lack of longer-term review of new roles; and the incompatibility between role flexibility and needs for role clarity. Policy makers, managers and practitioners are urged to acknowledge the subtleties and complexities of new work roles in the public sector highlighted by this study.
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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fifth leading cause of mortality worldwide and is a burden on healthcare resources. Therefore, implementing the right care model(s) for patients with COPD is a priority. Nurses, particularly those with specialist roles, are often the principal health professionals involved in new service models. ⋯ This study identifies a considerable mismatch between existing evidence around effectiveness and services provision for patients with COPD. It clearly highlights the need for greater interaction between what happens in practice and research. This is an issue that has relevance across all healthcare practice, both nationally and internationally.
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Researchers have ethical and legal responsibilities to ensure that individuals give informed consent to participate in research. The few studies of parental consent for paediatric research suggest there may be inadequate competence, information, understanding, or voluntariness for valid consent to occur. ⋯ These findings support and extend previous research on parental consent for research with children. They suggest areas where further research is indicated, including: the value and use of information and consent documents given to parents, the views and concerns of parents for whom English is not their first language, and further exploration of the concerns of the few dissatisfied parents. Current practices of obtaining informed consent for research lack supporting research evidence and may not be ethically justifiable.
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There is a lack of a simplified instrument for use in busy clinical settings to measure and differentiate anxiety levels of children. ⋯ This study addresses a gap in the literature by developing a 10-item short form of the CSAS-C. Results indicate that this short form is an appropriate and objective assessment tool for measuring anxiety levels of Chinese children in a busy clinical setting where time constraints make unfeasible the use of the full form.