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Despite improvements in substance abuse care in Sweden, variations in accessibility persist, particularly in rural areas where patients with dual diagnosis receive fewer follow-ups than patients in urban areas. This study aims to illuminate nursing staff’s experience when caring for patients with dual diagnosis in psychiatric outpatient care in rural areas. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with nursing staff at psychiatric outpatient clinics in rural areas. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings show that caring for patients with dual diagnosis in rural areas can mean being close for better or worse, dealing with unequal care at distance, and bridging barriers to accessibility. For good nurse–patient relationships, nursing staff need to be aware of power structures and strive to overcome stigma. Additionally, organizations could benefit from drawing on the implementation competence of RNs with master’s level education. More research with an intersectional approach is needed on digital solutions for patients with dual diagnosis in rural areas.

The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of direct staff in managing psychiatric symptoms in people with intellectual disabilities and behaviors of concern in supported accommodation. The study has a quantitative, cross-sectional design using a questionnaire. Data were collected from 197 direct staff members working in supported community-based accommodation using an adapted version of the Checklist of Challenging Behaviour (CCB). The results show that staff experienced slight or moderate difficulty in managing psychiatric symptoms. The ratings were 38% for anxiety, 37% for compulsive behavior, 31% for manic behavior, and 49% for depressive symptoms. Direct staff members in supported accommodation face challenges in managing psychiatric symptoms and require educational training to improve their knowledge and skills. One viable option would be to implement web-based training programs. Further research and evaluation are imperative to improve access to mental health care for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Persons with severe mental ill-health die early from preventable physical ill-health. Registered nurses in psychiatric outpatient care play a key role in improving persons’ physical health, and it is important to examine how they view their responsibility, their experiences of care, and the obstacles they meet in providing person-centred care. The purpose of this study was to explore registered nurses’ experiences of caring for persons with mental ill-health and somatic comorbidity in psychiatric outpatient care, using qualitative content analysis to analyze data from semi-structured interviews. The results show that these nurses monitored the person’s right to equal care, embraced the whole of the persons suffering, and dealt with unclear boundaries in care. This highlights the unique role that registered nurses play in psychiatric outpatient care via their ability to interpret symptoms and find ways to adapt care based on persons’ needs. Registered nurses consider physical health in all care and provide a link between psychiatric and somatic care. Together with mental health nurses at primary health care centers, they are key in reducing persons’ suffering. There is a need for structural and functional changes in line with person-centred care including collaboration both within and outside healthcare organizations.

People with severe mental ill-health have lower life expectancies than the rest ofthe population, partly due to unhealthy lifestyles. Counselling to help these people improve their health can also be complex, and registered nurses are key to its success.The aim of this study was to elucidate registered nurses' experiences of providing health counselling to people living with severe mental ill-health in supported housing. We conducted eight individual semi-structured interviews with registered nurses working in this context and subjected the responses to qualitative content analysis. The results show that registered nurses who counsel people with severe mental ill-health feel dispirited, but they defend their often fruitless endeavours and strive, through health counselling, to help these people meet healthier lifestyle goals. Shifting the focus from traditional health counselling to person-centred care using health-promoting conversations could strengthen registered nurses in their efforts towards improving lifestyles among people living with severe mental ill-healthin supported housing. Therefore, to facilitate healthier lifestyles among this population, we recommend that community healthcare support registered nurses working in supported housing by educating them in the use of health-promoting conversations, including teach-back techniques.

Around 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of functional and/or intellectual disability (FID). Nursing staff often face threats and violence in the care of patients with FID. This study aimed to illuminate registered nurses’ experiences of challenging situations in their psychosocial working environment in home care of patients with functional and/or intellectual disabilities. Nine registered nurses/district nurses working in municipal settings were interviewed using a qualitative approach. COREQ was used for explicit and comprehensive reporting of qualitative studies. Three categories were revealed: To face challenging behaviour, To face emotional burden and To face communication difficulties. Nurses need continuous training and support to cope with work-related stress to meet a person with FID in a calm and relaxed mood and to be prepared for critical situations in their psychosocial environment. Training and support may enable nurses to be in a state of harmony and to be present in order to build caring relationships.

Providing care and support to persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) requires in-depth knowledge about ID and challenging behaviour (CB) as well as communication and interaction. Knowledge deficiencies in these areas may prevent staff from understanding their clients and their behaviours, particularly those behaviours considered to be challenging. The aim of this study was to explore staff’s perceptions about CB among clients with ID in residential settings before and after a web-based training programme using the survey instrument 'Checklist of Challenging Behaviour' (CCB). The CRe-DEPTH guideline has served as a guide in this study. Upon completion of the training, staff perceived a reduced frequency of CB as well as reduced management difficulty of CB among clients. As such, training should routinely be offered to all staff in residential settings, but also healthcare professionals in general responsible for caring for clients exhibiting CB to ensure, improve and reinforce the quality of care and support provided to them.

Chemical restraints are used in forensic psychiatric inpatient care, however with caution as it can feel like an assault against patients' integrity. When waiting for decisions on treatment without consent, nursing staff are expected to care for patients with severe mental ill-health without the use of medical treatment, often with a feeling of already having tried all other available means. Knowledge about how registered nurses experience such situations is sparse but could contribute to the development of both teamwork and nursing approaches that could mean reduced suffering for patients. The aim of this study was to describe registered nurses' experiences of delayed decisions on treatment without consent in forensic psychiatric inpatient care. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with registered nurses working in forensic psychiatric units in Sweden. Data were analysed through qualitative content analysis. The result showed that experiences of treatment without consent were about striving to protect patients from harm, striving for collaboration during difficult circumstances and striving to do good. This was interpreted as a struggle with unnecessary suffering. For registered nurses to be able to handle such challenging situations and relieve suffering for patients, experience and master-level education in mental health nursing are highlighted. Another aspect that is highlighted is the importance of having consultants familiar with the circumstances at the unit. A method for joint reflection is suggested, to promote an open-minded work culture with a well-functioning decision-making process and ensure that both consultants and nursing staff have support.

Background: Clear and effective communication is a prerequisite to provide help and support in healthcare situations, especially in health, and social care services for persons with intellectual disabilities, as these clients commonly experience communication difficulties. Knowledge about how to communicate effectively is integral to ensuring the quality of care. Currently, however, there is a lack of such knowledge among staff working in the disabilities sector, which is exacerbated by challenges in the competence provision in municipal health and social care services. Therefore, the aim of the study was to explore staffs' experience of web-based training in relation to their professional caring for persons with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior. The intention is to move toward well-evaluated and proven web-based training in order to contribute to competence provision in this specific context.

Methods: Fourteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with individual staff members to gather data regarding their experiences with web-based training in relation to their profession. The collected data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with a focus on both manifest and latent content.

Results: The staff's experiences with the web-based training program were presented as a single main theme: “Web-based training for staff initiates a workplace learning process by promoting reflections on and awareness of how to better care for persons with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior.” This theme contained three categories which are based on eight sub-categories.

Conclusion and clinical implications: The benefits of web-based training for workplace learning could clearly be observed in the strengthening of professional care for persons with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior. Staff members claimed to have gained novel insights about how to better care for clients as well as about the importance of interactions in their encounters with clients. Professional teamwork is crucial to providing effective care for persons with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior. Hence, future research aimed at investigating the views of other healthcare professionals, such as registered nurses, is recommended to improve the competence provision within municipal health and social care services and thereby enhance the quality of care.

Objective: We evaluated school nurses' attitudes towards family involvement in school healthcare when children exhibit signs of mental health problems.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, the Families' Importance in Nursing Care-Nurses' Attitudes (FINC-NA) instrument was used to measure school nurses' (N = 133) attitudes towards family involvement. Data were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U-test.

Results: School nurses (95%) encountered students with mental health problems every day or every week. Overall, school nurses were positive towards family involvement in school healthcare. Primary school nurses were more positive compared to secondary school nurses, seeing the family as a resource and a conversation partner. School nurses who felt that they had insufficient tools to work with children with mental health problems saw the family as a burden compared to school nurses who reported they have sufficient tools.

Conclusion: School nurses' attitudes toward involving families as a resource are promising. However, when nurses perceive themselves as lacking sufficient tools to respond to children's mental health problems, they are more likely to experience the family as a burden than a resource. Cooperation between school nurses and families may be crucial. Therefore, we suggest a Family Health Conversations model to improve nurse-family collaboration

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the perceptions that municipal primary healthcare nurses and municipal registered nurses had about a web-based learning intervention concerning supportive family health conversations in municipal home health care.

BACKGROUND: Even though family health conversations are well grounded in theory with several reported benefits for patients and families, most working nurses have little or no training in practising family systems nursing including family health conversations. Continued learning is necessary for nurses, where web-based learning may be one answer of updating the professional skills and knowledge of nurses regarding supporting families.

DESIGN: The study used a descriptive design and followed the "Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research" (COREQ) checklist.

METHODS: Twenty-one nurses participated in an educational intervention that consisted of web-based learning and two face-to-face seminars about family systems nursing including family health conversations. The nurses were interviewed after completion, and the audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS: The findings consist of nurses' perceptions regarding the disposition of instruction, the prerequisites for learning and a changed approach when working with families. The findings are further reflected on through Illeris' theory concerning learning triangle.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings are encouraging for educating nurses in family health conversations at their workplace, with the purpose of supporting patients and families. However, it is important to be aware of the different dimensions of learning, in addition to the appraisal of social aspects and organisational circumstances when educating nurses as they influence the utilisation of the knowledge.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This web-based learning intervention seems to be suitable for educating nurses in family health conversations and could be an appropriate step towards implementing these conversations in home health care with the purpose of supporting families.