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Aim: To illuminate nurses' experiences of communicating with families in home health care.

Design: A qualitative inductive approach.

Background: An increasing number of ageing and sick people are being granted home health care. Nurses' duties involve caring for both patients and their families, which includes the important task of meeting and talking with them.

Methods: Fourteen registered nurses working in home health care in Sweden participated in individual narrative semistructured interviews. The interviews were analysed with content analysis. To make sure all components of the study were clear, the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist was used as a guide.

Result: Communication with families was viewed as a crucial action for building rapport to facilitate the involvement and support of families in difficult situations. The nurses highlighted the struggles they sometimes faced in communication when they found it difficult to reach the family. When the communication was supportive for the family, the nurses felt that they were empowering the family members to empower themselves.

Conclusion: This study highlights the vital role of communication in home health care nursing. Effective communication fosters trust and enables nurses to meet family needs.

Implications for the Profession: Effective communication between nurses and families in home health care is crucial from a health care perspective. Building reciprocal relationships fosters trust, enabling nurses to efficiently identify and address family needs and enhancing the quality of care.

Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to illuminate experiences of obtainingsupport among male adolescents with congenital heart disease and their mothers,and nurses’ experiences of providing support within pediatric nursing care.

Methods: This descriptive qualitative study used an inductive approach. Datawere collected from interviews with six participants: two adolescents with congenital heart defects-mother dyads, and two nurses at a pediatric cardiac outpatient clinic in Sweden. Data were analyzed through content analysis.

Results: Results are divided into three domains: desired support, lacking support,and undesirable support. Within these three respective domains, support is furtherillustrated from three categories of perspectives: adolescents, mothers, and nurses.

Conclusions: Study findings show adolescents and their mothers desire support,such as family-system nursing. Nurses strive to provide support in the form ofinformative care like the approach based on the philosophy of pediatric familycentered care.

Implications: When highlighting experiences of support from different perspectives, it is important for the provided support to be adapted to families’ needs.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate pediatric neonatal nurses' (PNNs') experiences of enhancing early attachment for the premature children in neonatal intensive care (NIC). An interview study with 8 PNNs in NIC in southeastern Sweden was conducted, and analyzed by content analysis. Result, illustrated three categories: Enabling closeness between the child and the parents, Supporting parents’ sense of parenthood, and Obstacles to enhancing attachment. Discussion, PNNs have a great role to supporting parents, but several barriers need to be addressed to make it easier for the PNN in NIC to enhance attachment for the child.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate pediatric nurses' (PNs) perceptions of support for families with a child with a congenital heart defect. The study used a qualitative design with narrative interviews with eight PNs in Northern Sweden, and the interview data were analyzed with content analysis. The analysis revealed that the nurses perceive that letting the parents be involved in their child's care is of great importance in supporting the families. Although they have a paternalistic attitude to the families, they also stated that nurses should inform the parents about the care of the child, create a good relationship with the family, and build trust among all parties involved.

The purpose of the study was to illuminate the meanings of the lived experiences of support as disclosed by fathers of children with congenital heart defect (CHD). Narrative interviews were conducted individually with five fathers of children diagnosed with CHD. A phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used to interpret the verbatim transcribed narrative interviews. The meanings of the lived experiences of support for the fathers were identified in two themes and illustrate the fathers' feelings of being supported when being in a mutual relationship with others. A third theme illustrates the situation when support is absent. Our findings indicate that support for fathers of children with CHD might be best promoted by the philosophy of family-centered care.

There is a need for a suitable instrument for the Swedish context that could measure family members' perceptions of cognitive and emotional support received from nurses. The purpose of this study was to translate and test the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Iceland-Family Perceived Support Questionnaire (ICE-FPSQ) and, further, to report perceptions of support from nurses by family members of children with congenital heart defects (CHDs). A sample of 97 parents of children with CHD, living in Sweden, completed the Swedish translation of ICE-FPSQ. The Swedish version of ICE-FPSQ was found to be reliable and valid in this context. Parents scored perceived family support provided by nurses working in pediatric outpatient clinics as low, which suggests that nurses in these outpatient contexts in Sweden offered family nursing only sparingly.

Bakgrund. Antalet överlevande barn som diagnostiserats med medfött hjärtfel (CHD) har ökat markant de senaste 15 åren, vilket har bidragit till en växande grupp av barn och familjer som behöver specialiserat stöd, eftersom familjelivet påverkas och begränsas av CHD. Studier har visat att föräldrar till barn med CHD har en ökad risk för psykosocial sjuklighet i jämförelse med föräldrar till barn med andra sjukdomar eller föräldrar till friska barn. Få studier har belyst föräldrars erfarenheter av stöd när de har barn med CHD. Därför fokuseras denna avhandling på föräldrarnas perspektiv av fenomenet stöd, för att öka förståelsen för vad stöd innebär för föräldrar till barn med CHD.

Syfte. Avhandlingens syfte är att belysa innebörder i den levda erfarenheten av stöd, hos föräldrar till barn med CHD samt att till svensk kontext anpassa och validera ett familjecentrerat instrument för föräldrars skattning av stöd till hela familjen från sjuksköterskor.

Metoder. Avhandling består av fyra delstudier. I tre av dessa (I, II, III) genomfördes datainsamlingen genom narrativa intervjuer, som tolkades genom fenomenologisk hermeneutisk tolkningsmetod. I den fjärde delstudien gjordes en översättning och psykometrisk testning av det isländska instrumentet ICE-FPSQ till svensk kontext. Dessutom beskrevs föräldrars skattning av uppfattat stöd från sjuksköterskor till familjer som har barn med CHD.

Resultat. Fynden från delstudie I visade att innebörder i den levda erfarenheten av stöd hos föräldrar till tonåringar med CHD var stöd för att själva kunna vara stödjande för sin familj, men också för andra personer i tonåringens omgivning. Delstudie II visade att innebörder i den levda erfarenheten av stöd för mödrar till yngre barn med CHD var att få stöd så att de själva kunde hantera sin egen oro och sitt familjeliv. Delstudie III visade att innebörder i den levda erfarenheten av stöd för fäder till yngre barn med CHD var önskan att få stöd genom delande relationer med familjen och att bli involverad i vården av sitt barn. Den fjärde delstudien (IV) visade att den svenska versionen av instrumentet ICE-FPSQ var valid och reliabel i svensk kontext. Föräldrarnas skattningar av uppfattat familjecentrerat stöd till familjen från sjuksköterskor visade sig vara lågt.

Slutsats. En övergripande slutsats från de tre första delstudierna pekar mot att innebörder i stöd för föräldrarna är stöd genom att ha goda, interaktiva relationer med vårdpersonalen, bli mött som en hel familj med unika och individuella behov samt inkluderade i vårdprocessen för att kunna stödja varandra inom familjen. Dessa fynd pekar mot familjecentrerad pediatrisk omvårdnad som sannolikt är lämplig för att, på ett mångfacetterat sätt, möta varje familjs behov av att bli bemött som en unik helhet. Det Isländska instrumentet ICE-FPSQ är designad utifrån teorin om familjecentrerad omvårdnad. I delstudie IV visade resultaten på acceptabla psykometriska egenskaper för den svenska versionen av instrumentet. Fynden visade även att föräldrarna inte skattade höga nivåer av familjecentrerat stöd från sjuksköterskor.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to illuminate the meanings of support as disclosed by mothers of children with congenital heart defects (CHD).

DESIGN AND METHOD: Narrative interviews were conducted with 10 mothers of children with CHD. A phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used for interpretation of the transcribed interviews.

RESULTS: The comprehensive understanding of mothers' lived experiences of support emerged as the experiences of receiving good support, receiving "poor support," and absence of support.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Mothers receiving person-centered and family-centered care feel more supported and are more likely to adapt to the stresses of parenting a child with CHD.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate the meanings of the lived experience of support for parents of adolescents with heart defects. Narrative interviews were conducted with four mothers and two fathers of adolescents with heart defects. Interviews were interpreted using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method. The interpretation revealed that parents, themselves, attempt to be very supportive. They support their adolescent children, the rest of their families, the staffs of their children's schools, and others around their children. The sense of gratification and contentment that parents receive from fulfilling supportive functions is, in turn, influenced by the support that they, themselves, receive from care providers.

Heart failure is a chronic syndrome that has physiological, psychological and social effects. The aim of the study was toilluminate the meanings of support as experienced by elderly women with chronic heart failure. Narrative interviews wereconducted with five elderly women with chronic heart failure. A phenomenological hermeneutic method of interpretationwas used. The meanings of support were experienced by the women out of two perspectives, that is, when support is presentand when there is a lack of support. The findings were revealed in two themes: ‘‘Feeling confident means support’’ and‘‘Feeling abandoned’’. The women do not wish to be a burden. They want to be independent as much as possible to defendtheir dignity. An important support to the women is that they are understood and confirmed in their illness. Supportiverelations are most valuable, that is, a relationship that supports the women’s independence. If there is no supportiverelationship, they feel like a burden to others and they feel lonely; this loneliness creates suffering and counteracts wellbeingand health.