Patient involvement in Danish health care

Neurosurgical Patients' Preferences and Experiences of Involvement During Hospitalization

BACKGROUND

There has been an increased focus on patient involvement in health care worldwide, with studies showing that involving patients in their treatment and care is associated with positive outcomes. However, there is a dearth of knowledge about inpatient preferences and experiences of involvement in neurosurgery in Scandinavian countries. This study aimed to identify inpatients' preferences regarding their involvement in their treatment and the extent to which they experienced being involved in their treatment and care during admission.

METHODS

A questionnaire survey was administered in a neurosurgical department. Patients' preferences and experiences regarding their involvement in their treatment and care were assessed using a validated questionnaire.

RESULTS

One hundred patients were enrolled in the study. Eighty-two percent of them preferred sharing responsibility for their treatment with their doctor; 16% preferred leaving their treatment decisions entirely up to the doctor; and 2 percent preferred making the final decision about their treatment independently. The average participation score for information, communication, and participation was 4.08, suggesting that the patients experienced a high level of involvement in their care and treatment. Thirty patients reported preferences for changes during admission, while 25 suggested ideas for improvement.

CONCLUSIONS

The patients mostly preferred shared decision-making about their treatment during hospitalization and generally reported high involvement in their treatment and care. The results showed a desire for improved information sharing and dialog among healthcare professionals, patients, and relatives.

Health service provider views on measuring patient involvement in healthcare: an interview study with researchers, clinicians, service managers, and policymakers

BACKGROUND

There are several strategies used to assess involvement in their healthcare across service providers. However, there is no consensus on the most appropriate measurement tool to use when evaluating patient involvement initiatives. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives of stakeholders from micro, meso, and macro levels within the Danish healthcare system on measuring patient involvement in their healthcare.

METHODS

This descriptive, explorative study employed semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions to elicit participants' views and experiences of patient involvement and measurement tools. A purposeful sample of participants was identified, to include decision makers, researchers, and health professionals (n = 20) with experiences of measuring patient involvement in healthcare at micro, meso, and macro levels across Danish organizations. Data underwent reflexive thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Three main themes were identified: 1) Determining the purpose of patient involvement practices and measurement alignment; 2) Reflecting on the qualities, fit, and usefulness of measures; 3) Recognizing conflicting stakeholder paradigms. Despite the interest in and positive attitudes toward patient involvement innovations, views on the meaning and value of evaluating involvement varied; in part, this was attributable to challenges in selecting criteria, methods, and measures for evaluation.

CONCLUSION

The findings indicate the need to integrate the perspectives of all key stakeholders in designing the evaluation of patient involvement initiatives. The application of a multiple stakeholder approach and co-production of a multidimensional evaluation may provide some common ground for selecting evaluation criteria and measurement tools in the healthcare setting.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Danish Data Protection Agency (1-16-02-400-21) 15 October 2021.

Healthcare providers' narratives about interactionally troubling patient exchanges: Accounting for and against an active patient role

The current trend in healthcare is to actively involve patients in their own treatment; however, in practice, healthcare providers may adhere to paternalistic views, which may not align with ideals related to patient involvement. This tension may become visible when providers talk about service encounters that they experienced as being interactionally troubling. In this empirical qualitative study, we utilize Bamberg's narrative positioning analysis to explore how healthcare providers construct patients' roles in narratives about such troubling exchanges. Data consist of 20 audio-recorded interviews with healthcare providers. We found two types of narratives in which healthcare providers' perceptions of interactionally troubling patient exchanges were consistently related to their implicit evaluations of patients along a continuum of activeness versus passiveness. In the first, an active patient was considered ideal, and the problematic patient was one who is passive. In the second, a patient's over-activeness was thought to interfere with the healthcare delivery. While providers' complaints about patient passiveness were unproblematically presented from the perspective of the patient participation ideal, complaints about patient over-activeness were difficult to account for due to their inherent connotations with paternalism. Thus, we conclude that there is a need for training and interventions aiming to develop healthcare providers' critical awareness of shifting cultural models, including patient involvement ideals and providers' capacity to reflect paternalistic tendencies.

Investigation of predictor factors of the nursing students attitudes toward parents' participation in care

PURPOSE

A positive attitude toward family-centered care practices should be developed in undergraduate education. This study aimed to investigate nursing students' attitudes toward parental participation in child patient care and the factors that influence it.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study data were collected from the nursing department of a university located in the west of Turkey. The study was conducted with 260 nursing students. The descriptive Features Form, Family-Centered Care Practices Form, and Parental Participation Attitude Scale were used in data collection.

RESULTS

The students' average parental participation attitude in care scores was at a moderate level. It has been determined that gender, hospitalization experience, education on family-centered care, and support from instructors in family-centered care practices had a positive effect on the student's attitudes toward parental participation in care (p < 0.05). The regression analysis showed gender and family-centered care education as predictors of student' attitudes toward parent participation in care.

CONCLUSIONS

It was found that students' attitudes toward parental participation in the care of child patients were at an indecision level and not at the desired grade, and it was affected by gender, hospitalization experience, education, and instructor support.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The development of family-centered care practices should begin in nursing education. It is recommended that detailed attention be given to topics related to family-centered care in nursing education, and seminars be organized on this subject. Thus, nursing students can both develop a positive attitude toward family-centered care and learn to work together with the family.

Critical care nurses' perception of patient involvement in care: A qualitative focus group

BACKGROUND

Patient involvement in care in the intensive care unit (ICU) is complex. Knowledge about the nature and extent of patient involvement in the Intensive care unit is scarce.

AIM

The aim of the study was to explore the critical care nursing staff's perception of patient involvement in their care in the ICU.

STUDY DESIGN

A phenomenological, hermeneutic research study was carried out using qualitative data. Data were collected in two focus group interviews analysed using Ricoeur's theory of interpretation. The study was conducted in a level 2 medical-surgical 8-bed ICU in a regional hospital in Southern Denmark.

RESULTS

Critical care nurses found it important to maintain involvement in intensive care. Depending on the patient's ability to partake in care, approaches for patient involvement ranged from (1) continually adjusting care activities according to the patient's bodily responses, (2) formation of a relationship with the patient to enable personalized care and (3) making room for self-determined care progressing with the patient's recovery.

CONCLUSION

Critical care nurses' perception of patient involvement depended on the patient's level of consciousness. When unconscious, patient involvement was possible but took a physical approach. However, the power inequality in the nurse-patient relationship must be expressed if patient involvement in the ICU is to take place.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Results suggest that nurses' perception of patient involvement in the ICU depends on the patient's level of consciousness. Patient involvement may be possible even when the patient is unconscious but it takes a more physical approach. It is essential that the power inequality in the nurse-patient relationship must be expressed if patient involvement in the ICU is to take place.

Levels of health literacy among people living with HIV in outpatient care: a cross-sectional study from Denmark

BACKGROUND

Low health literacy (HL) among people living with HIV (PLWHIV) encounter more disease related complications, more difficulty understanding health-related information and low adherence. Considering that, the HL levels among PLWHIV needs to be further investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the levels of HL and patient involvement among PLWHIV in an outpatient clinic in Denmark. A second objective was to examine differences in HL levels across socio-demographic characteristics.

METHODS

In 2019, a population of 682 PLWHIV from a Danish outpatient hospital clinic were enrolled in cross-sectional study. Patients who had a digital postbox received an electronic questionnaire including following domains; health literacy, patient involvement, and socio-demographic status. Health literacy was measured using the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) through scores on three subscales: social support for health (HLQ4), engaging with healthcare providers (HLQ6), and understanding health information (HLQ9). An unpaired t-test was used to investigate mean differences in the HLQ scores across socio-demographic variables.

RESULTS

A total of 338 (55%) patients responded to the questionnaire. The included participants demonstrated high levels of HLQ4 (mean = 4.2) and HLQ6 (mean = 4.2), but lower for HLQ9 (mean = 2.9). In total 70-80% reported being involved in decisions about their health. We found a positive association between high level of HL (HLQ9) and living with a partner and higher levels of HL (HLQ4, HLQ6, and HLQ9) and employment.

CONCLUSION

PLWHIV in a Danish out-patient care population were found to have high levels of HL despite differences in demographic characteristics. Further research is needed to examine the levels of HL among non-responders to develop HL approaches and strategies to meet the needs of individuals with different HL skills.

Measures used to assess interventions for increasing patient involvement in Danish healthcare setting: a rapid review

OBJECTIVE

To identify measures used within Denmark evaluating any type of intervention designed to facilitate patient involvement in healthcare.

DESIGN

Environmental scan employing rapid review methods.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE, PsycInfo and CINAHL were searched from 6-9 April 2021 from database inception up to the date of the search.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Quantitative, observational and mixed methods studies with empirical data on outcomes used to assess any type of intervention aiming to increase patient involvement with their healthcare. Language limitations were Danish and English.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Two independent reviewers extracted data from 10% of the included studies and, due to their agreement, the data from the rest were extracted by first author. Data were analysed with reference to existing categories of measuring person-centred care; findings were synthesised using narrative summaries. Adapted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines were used to guide reporting.

RESULTS

Among 3767 records, 43 studies met the inclusion criteria, including 74 different measures used to evaluate interventions aimed at increasing patient involvement within healthcare in Danish hospital and community settings. Generic measures assessed: patient engagement (n=3); supporting self-management (n=8); supporting shared decision-making (n=9); patient satisfaction and experiences of care (n=11); health-related patient-reported outcome (n=20).

CONCLUSIONS

Across Denmark, complex interventions designed to improve patient involvement with healthcare vary in their goals and content. Some targeting healthcare professionals, some patient health literacy and some service infrastructure. A plethora of measures assess the impact of these interventions on patient, professional and service delivery outcomes. Few measures assessed patient involvement directly, and it is unclear which proxy measures capture indicators of perceived involvement. Lack of conceptual clarity between intervention goals, the components of change and measures makes it difficult to see what types of intervention can best support change in services to ensure patients are more effectively involved in their healthcare.

Primary healthcare professionals' experience with patient participation in healthcare service development: A qualitative study

Objective

How healthcare professionals experience patient participation in health service development impacts its use. This participatory study explores primary healthcare professionals' perceptions of developing health services with patient representatives.

Methods

Four focus group interviews with primary healthcare professionals (n = 26) were conducted. We analyzed data by applying Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis.

Results

The healthcare professionals perceived having a complementary interprofessional relationship with the patient representatives and regarded them as colleagues. However, the professionals navigated between a position of authority and collaboration, reconciling the need for participation with its challenges, e.g., to identify the representatives' collective representation among their personal experience, to ensure a more evidence-informed result that they and their colleagues would endorse.

Conclusions

Regarding patient representatives as colleagues can blur the line between professionals and representatives' positions and functions and further complicate health service development. Our results indicate a need for skilled facilitators to lead the process.

Innovation

This study identifies issues that professionals are uncertain about when collaborating with representatives to develop primary healthcare services; difficulties that professionals must overcome to collaborate constructively with representatives. Our findings can inform healthcare professionals' education about patient participation on all levels. We have suggested topics to address.

What Does It Take for Research to Be Rehabilitation Research?

Six recommendations to facilitate rehabilitation research and supplement existing research practices were identified. Rehabilitation practice requires research addressing different long-term multi-faceted needs and perspectives of end users, including service users, professionals, politicians, and administrators. Research in rehabilitation should therefore integrate different research traditions and methods. Rehabilitation research with a broad focus is sparse, and most of the research takes its starting point in the biomedical research tradition. Through a nominal group process, we developed recommendations to emphasize important issues in rehabilitation research.

"When I feel safe, I dare to open up": immigrant and refugee patients' experiences with coproducing healthcare

OBJECTIVE

Interest in the coproduction concept in healthcare is increasing. According to coproduction, services are, unlike goods, always coproduced by a user and a service provider. This study explored how immigrants and refugees perceive the coproduction of their healthcare service in clinical encounters.

METHODS

We conducted semi-structured interviews with thirteen patients with varied backgrounds and health problems. Participants were purposefully recruited in an interdisciplinary clinic for immigrants and refugees at a Danish University Hospital. Interviews were transcribed, anonymized, and analyzed using meaning condensation.

RESULTS

Patients emphasized the importance of a safe space where they could be themselves and feel supported. This encouraged them to be open and assume an active role in the coproduction of their health. A stable therapeutic alliance based on kindness and kinship helped them find strength and take responsibility for their own health.

CONCLUSIONS

This study improves our understanding of how immigrants and refugees experience the coproduction of healthcare services. Further studies, evaluating long-term outcomes of coproduction efforts, are required.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Providing a safe space in which health professionals have time to listen and empathically validate immigrant and refugee patients' lived realities, can enable patients to open up and become agents of their own health.

The patient as a prosumer of healthcare: insights from a bibliometric-interpretive review

PURPOSE

Healthcare policies around the globe are aimed at achieving patient-centeredness. The patient is understood as a prosumer of healthcare, wherein healthcare service co-production and value co-creation take center stage. The article endeavors to unpack the state of the literature on the innovations promoting the transition toward patient-centeredness, informing policy and management interventions fostering the reconceptualization of the patient as a prosumer of healthcare services.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

A hybrid review methodology consisting of a bibliometric-interpretive review following the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol is used. The bibliometric component enabled us to objectively map the extant scientific knowledge into research streams, whereas the interpretive component facilitated the critical analysis of research streams.

FINDINGS

Patient-centeredness relies on a bundle of innovations that are enacted through a cycle of patients' activation, empowerment, involvement and engagement, wherein the omission of any steps arrests the transition toward service co-production and value co-creation. Institutional, organizational and cognitive barriers should be overcome to boost the transition of patients from consumers to prosumers in a patient-centered model of healthcare.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

The article delivers the state of the art of the scientific literature in the field of innovations aimed at sustaining the transition toward patient-centeredness and provides some food for thoughts to scholars and practitioners who wish to push forward service co-production and value co-creation in healthcare.

The ruling relations of patient involvement in cardiac rehabilitation programs

Patient involvement has often been defined and examined on the basis of conceptual theoretical frameworks. This article explores patient involvement contextually and locally, in encounters between patients and healthcare professionals in cardiac rehabilitation in Denmark. With inspiration from institutional ethnography, the goal is to unpack what involvement actually implies in rehabilitation activities. The analysis provides micro-sociological insights into how patient involvement is constituted and institutionally conditioned and shows how textually mediated ruling relations regulate activities and interactions, shaping patient involvement in local practices. The analysis reveals how patient involvement primarily relates to healthcare professionals involving patients in health knowledge. It explores how national guidelines and local instructions for healthcare professionals frame understandings of patient needs and problems. The concluding discussion highlights how patients have limited opportunities to influence their own care process. It also points out how it is left to the individual healthcare professional to solve contradictions between institutionally defined tasks and the ambition of patient involvement.

Patient involvement in Greenland hospital-care: A qualitative study of the patient perspective

This article deals with drivers for and barriers to patient involvement in Greenland hospital-care, from the patients' perspective.Data were generated in 2019, via semi-structured research interviews and field observations. At the National Hospital in Nuuk, participants were purposively included to ensure variation regarding diagnosis, age, sex, socio-demographics, and place of residence. A number of 11 patients participated in individual interviews. Concurrently, observations of bed-side care situations and interactions between health professionals and patients were conducted, and informal conversations were held with eight patients. Findings were analysed using Malterud's systematic text condensation, and constituted the following themes: "Patient characteristics"; "Interaction with staff members"; and "Personal experiences and prerequisites for information and care".One of the main findings was that personal expectations, confidence in the quality of hospital-care, language skills, conditions around family support, and taboos concerning not being able to take care of oneself, impacted patients' opportunities for involvement.It is concluded that patient involvement cannot be accomplished by simply focusing on patients' health competencies. To ensure that hospital-care is provided in partnership with patients and families, it is equally important that health professionals develop new skills, and that the healthcare system is re-organised towards a more patient- oriented approach.

Patient Involvement During a Pathway of Home-Based Reablement for Older Persons: A Longitudinal Single-Case Study

Background

In recent years, home-based reablement has become an increasingly popular way to provide rehabilitation services. This health care service aims to enable older persons to live longer at home while reducing the need for institutionalization. To ensure the provision of high-quality services, there is a continual need for research on issues of user involvement and co-creation during the pathway of the reablement process.

Purpose

This study focused on user involvement and participation with health care professionals during the reablement process.

Methods

This was a longitudinal, instrumental single-case study, in which one 85-year-old female patient was followed over the pathway of a six-week reablement process. Data were collected at three stages, including the goal-mapping phase, evaluation phase, and three weeks after completing reablement.

Results

Our analyses revealed two themes for the goal-mapping phase (dialogue led by the care provider and main goal), three themes for the implementation phase (the home as the preferred setting, little influence on organizational factors, and participation, influence, and motivation), and three themes for the evaluation phase (patient understanding as a precondition, motivated by weak paternalism, and self-determination requires clear communication).

Conclusion

The patient becomes involved through a partly co-creation process. During this time, they are involved, motivated, and influenced over the pathway of reablement. Health care providers must avoid implementing too much control during the pathway of home-based reablement, as patients have contextual knowledge that care providers do not possess.

'Well, if I don't show up and go through with the fertility treatment, I won't have a baby'; Patient involvement in clinical practice: Option or condition?

RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES

Worldwide, the concept of patient involvement has a growing impact on health care. Involvement in care represents a benefit to many patients, but while being involved is inevitable for the patient, we assume that getting involved is not in all cases obtainable. On this background, we aimed to investigate patients' perceptions and experiences concerning their treatment and care in a clinical fertility treatment setting, and discuss how these may influence their possibilities for involvement in care.

METHOD

Based on findings from focus-group interviews with women undergoing fertility treatment, we have dealt with two aspects that impact the patients' possibilities for getting involved in their care: Imbalanced power relations in clinical settings, and patients' experiences of their physical vulnerability. Framed by phenomenological-hermeneutic text interpretation theory key condensations were analysed and critically discussed.

RESULTS

We found that (a) to the individual patient it did not represent a free choice to seek and undergo treatment; (b) patients experienced substantial dependency, vulnerability, and anxiety during their clinical pathway.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that it is essential to integrate also the influence of the clinical setting and the bodily aspects of care in the understanding of patient involvement in clinical practice.

Rethinking long-term condition management: An actor-level framework

To understand the complexities of managing long-term conditions and develop appropriate responses, micro-, meso- and macrolevels must be considered. However, these levels have not been combined in a single analytical framework of long-term condition management (LTCM). This article aims to describe a framework of LTCM practice and research that combines societal levels and key agents. The actor-level framework, based on the works of Abram De Swaan and Randall Collins, provides a broader understanding of LTCM as an interdisciplinary research field compared to previous contributions. The framework has three main advantages. First, it encourages knowledge production across levels and actors that address the complexity of long-term illness management. Second, it broadens the scope of LTCM as an interdisciplinary research field and practice field. Finally, it facilitates the integration of knowledge production from different disciplines and research traditions. The framework could stimulate interdisciplinary research collaboration to enhance knowledge of processes and interactions influencing the lives of individuals with long-term conditions.

The patient as a policy problem: Ambiguous perceptions of a critical interface in healthcare

The interface between the patient and the health service has changed, which constitutes a potential problem for various policy-makers. Using a critical policy perspective and drawing on the theory of problem framing, this paper explores how actor groups with different responsibilities perceive the patient as a constructed policy problem. This is a qualitative study where data consists of single episode interviews with healthcare politicians, senior administrators, service strategists, and unit mangers from one regional health authority in Sweden. A thematic content analysis of the interviews was carried out in accordance with “the framework approach”. The study illustrates how the actors interpret their reality using diverse problem frames. This becomes more visible when the framing is disentangled with regard to what perspective they employ in relation to different accounts: society or the individual, or the (healthcare) system or the (healthcare) professional. The actor groups are part of the same institutional context, which explains certain tendencies of similarities in terms of the accounts being used, but still they approach the constructed problem differently which is visible as shifts—scaling up and down—between different accounts. By analyzing and structuring the various problem frames (including its policy styles) we can enhance our knowledge about how those responsible for the governance of healthcare approach the patient as a policy problem, as something that concerns only the patient and/or the provider, or as something that needs to be addressed in broader strategic terms.

Nursing student-patient relationship - a 10-year comparison study in Finland

Objective This study aimed to describe and compare the group-level findings from 2005-2006 and 2015-2016 regarding students' and patients' views of the nursing student-patient relationship and associated factors. Methods The data were in both cases collected using Student-Patient Relationship Scales. The data were analysed statistically. Results In both student cohorts, authoritative and facilitative student-patient relationships were reported by the students more frequently than mechanistic relationships. Authoritative relationships were most common in both patient cohorts, whereas facilitative relationships had become more frequent than mechanistic relationships. A positive change of views in the student and patient cohorts was found in factors associated with the relationship. Conclusion In order to strengthen a clinical learning culture that reflects a facilitative student-patient relationship, further research is needed on the processes and outcomes of that relationship.

Beneficial self-management support and user involvement in Healthy Life Centres-A qualitative interview study in persons afflicted by overweight or obesity

Background

Relapse is high in lifestyle interventions involving behavioural change and weight loss maintenance. The purpose of lifestyle self‐management interventions offered at Healthy Life Centres (HLCs) is to empower the participants, leading to self‐management and improved health. Exploring beneficial self‐management support and user involvement in HLCs is critical for quality, improving effectiveness and guiding approaches to lifestyle change support in overweight and obesity.

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore how persons afflicted by overweight or obesity attending lifestyle interventions in Norwegian HLCs experience beneficial self‐management support and user involvement.

Method

Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 13 service users (5 men and 8 women). Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

One main theme was identified: regaining self‐esteem and dignity through active involvement and long‐term self‐worth support in partnership with others. This main theme comprised four themes: (a) self‐efficacy through active involvement and better perceived health, (b) valued through health‐care professionals (HPs) acknowledgement, equality and individualized support, (c) increased motivation and self‐belief through fellowship and peer support; and (d) maintenance of lifestyle change through accessibility and long‐term support.

Conclusion

Service users’ active involvement, acknowledgement and long‐term self‐worth support from HPs and peers seem to support self‐management and user involvement and may be some of the successful ingredients to lifestyle change. However, prolonged follow‐up support is needed. A collectivistic and long‐term perspective can integrate the importance of significant others and shared responsibility.

Implementation of patient involvement methods in the clinical setting: A qualitative study exploring the health professional perspective

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Patient involvement is increasingly recognized as a key component on the international health care agenda. This attention has brought a need for developing generic and standardized open-source methods, tools, and guidelines on how to systematically implement patient involvement initiatives in the clinical setting. The large-scale project the User-involving Hospital was initiated to implement two systematic methods for patient involvement at a Danish university hospital, but the required methods can only be implemented if embraced by the health professionals. This evaluation study aimed to explore the health professional perspective on the development and implementation of shared decision making (SDM) and user-led health care. Specifically, the objectives were to identify the most crucial preconditions for success and to translate the findings into practice recommendations.

METHOD

The study was based on a simple questionnaire survey and a qualitative descriptive analysis of semistructured focus group interviews with representatives of 21 multidisciplinary clinical teams (nine interviews) and 18 health professional department managers (six interviews).

RESULTS

Two years after the initiation of the User-involving Hospital, 13 out of 21 developed patient involvement initiatives were fully incorporated into clinical practice. Five domains were found significant for successful development and implementation of the patient involvement methods: the patients' perspectives, composition of multidisciplinary teams, bottom-up and skill building, support from management, and information sharing with colleagues.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings draw attention to several significant factors for successful implementation of large-scale patient involvement initiatives in hospitals, including the importance of having both a top-down and bottom-up approach and of active listening to the patients' perspectives. On the basis of these findings, the study outlines four recommendations incorporating the five identified key domains, which may inspire future projects on systematic development and implementation of patient-involvement initiatives based on either shared decision making or user-led health care in the clinical setting.

Understanding beneficial self-management support and the meaning of user involvement in lifestyle interventions: a qualitative study from the perspective of healthcare professionals

BACKGROUND

In light of the high prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults and the subsequent stigmatization and health consequences, there is a need to develop effective interventions to support lifestyle change. The literature supports the key role of healthcare professionals (HPs) in facilitating self-management through lifestyle interventions for those with chronic conditions. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how HPs practice self-management support (SMS) and user involvement for persons afflicted by overweight or obesity in lifestyle interventions in primary care Healthy Life Centres (HLC). The aim of this study was to explore how HPs provide SMS and what user involvement implies for HPs in HLCs.

METHODS

An interpretative exploratory design, using qualitative thematic analysis of data from two focus group interviews with ten HPs from eight different HLCs, was conducted.

RESULTS

The analysis resulted in one overall theme; A partnership based on ethical awareness, non-judgemental attitude, dialogue and shared responsibility, comprising four interrelated themes: 1) Supporting self-efficacy, self-worth and dignity through an attitude of respect, acknowledgement and generosity, 2) Promoting self-belief and self-perceived health, 3) Collaborating and sharing responsibility, and 4) Being flexible, adjusting and sharing time.

CONCLUSION

HPs in HLCs see service users as equal partners in a collaboration based on shared responsibility, acknowledgement and generosity. In order to help, their practice involves a heightened level of ethical awareness, including a non-judgemental attitude and dialogue. HPs in HLCs have something to teach us about ethical acting and helping persons who are struggling with overweight or obesity to change their lifestyle and regain dignity. They seem to see the service users' existential needs and have learned the art of meeting the other in her/his most vulnerable situation i.e., seeking help for a "wrong lifestyle". It may be time to highlight the need for SMS and user involvement to focus on shared responsibility in partnership rather than personal responsibility. More research is required to explore the conditions for such practice.

Nurses' attitudes regarding the importance of families in nursing care: A cross-sectional study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To investigate attitudes towards family involvement in care among a broad sample of Danish nurses from all sectors and healthcare settings.

BACKGROUND

Evidence suggests that nurses hold both supportive and less supportive attitudes about involvement of family members in the care of patients, and the existing findings are limited to specific healthcare contexts.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study adhering to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology for reporting observational studies.

METHODS

Using snowball sampling, the Families' Importance in Nursing Care-Nurses' Attitudes questionnaire was initially administered to a broad, convenience sample of Danish registered nurses through social media: Facebook interest groups and the homepage of the Danish Family Nursing Association. These nurses were encouraged to send the invitation to participate in their network of nursing colleagues. Complete data sets from 1,720 nurses were available for analysis.

RESULTS

In general, the nurses considered the family as important in patient care. Nurses who held master's and doctorate degrees scored significantly higher than nurses with a basic nursing education. Nurses who had had experience with illness within their own families tended to score higher on the family as a conversational partner subscale than those without this experience. Nurses with the longest engagement within hospital settings scored significantly lower than those with the longest engagement within primary health care and/or psychiatry.

CONCLUSIONS

Families are considered important in nursing care. Younger nurses with a basic education, short-term engagement at a hospital and no experiences with illness within their own families were predictors of less supportive attitudes towards including the family in nursing care.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Clinical leaders and managers should promote education on the importance of active family involvement in patient care in clinical practice and undergraduate education. More focus on collaboration with families in the hospital setting is needed.

Patient involvement in comprehensive, complex cancer surgery: Perspectives of patients, relatives and health professionals

We investigated the perspectives of patients, relatives and health professionals on the drivers and barriers to patient involvement (PI) in the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). During 2016-2017, individual and focus group interviews were conducted with purposively selected participants during CRS and HIPEC, supplemented by field observations. This material was analysed using meaning condensation (Kvale). Fifteen patients, eight relatives and nine health professionals participated in 31 individual and two focus group interviews, supplemented by 37 observations. The findings were structured into themes concerning treatment decisions, organisation of pathways, knowledge of the patient and life during treatment. Deciding to treat was determined not only by preoperative biomedical information, personal preferences but also findings during surgery. This circumstance put the patients under mental pressure and affected their ability to process the offered information. They furthermore perceived the pathway as complex and occasionally unclear, leading them to attempt to coordinate transitions themselves. The study has highlighted barriers to, rather than drivers of, PI. To promote PI during comprehensive complex cancer surgery, we suggest that patients and relatives are offered patient-centred care, such as support in posing questions, overview of their treatment pathway and coherent transitions.

Oncology patients' experience of a routine surveillance CT examination: Relationships and communication

INTRODUCTION

The question of radiographers' capacity to establish short time relationships as well as decoding patients' needs and expectations simultaneously with performing high technological examination frequently arises in the clinical practice. Additionally, the constant focus on technology and the fact that radiographers work in high productive departments accentuates the issue. Patients' experiences with radiology seem to be a neglected area of research and may help to identify areas for improvement in this highly technological and productive field. The purpose of the study was to explore oncology patients' experiences of a routine surveillance CT examination and their need for relationships and communication with the radiographer as part of the CT examination.

METHODS

The study included patients diagnosed with cancer and in need of a CT examination as part of their course of treatment, and 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Themes were constructed and narratively reported. To increase validity, the themes were identified, discussed and formulated by the author group.

RESULTS

Four themes were constructed based on the analysis: 1: The professional radiographer, 2. Disease and treatment, 3. The examination environment and 4: While waiting.

CONCLUSION

The lack of focus on radiographers' capacity to establish relations, to consider each patient as an individual human being and being able to show sincere interest and empathy were highlighted. Findings illuminated the patient's need for relationship and communication with the radiographer as part of a CT examination.

The dialogic construction of patient involvement in patient-centred neurorehabilitation

This paper explores how the practice of patient involvement in neurorehabilitation is constructed in tension-riddled professional narratives. I adopt dialogic communication theory to focus on how involvement is constructed across different roles and voices. My analysis is based on an action research project that uses a dialogical communication perspective and participatory methods to explore patient-centred care through the eyes of healthcare professionals. I argue that patient involvement is constructed as a demanding process that requires memory, presence, communicative abilities and temporal understanding of personal needs. These requirements are not explicit in the situated institutionalized practices. As well, I show how the available involvement strategies are laced with taken for granted characteristics, which fall short in the situation that arises when patients do not have the ability to participate or play the role of an active patient. The findings in this paper contribute to the growing literature on patient-centred healthcare by empirically investigating how the discursive configuration of patient, health professional and institutional practices intertwine in producing certain inherent expectations, habits and taken for granted perspectives in care delivery. I also suggest that the findings can usefully be incorporated into patient-centred care design and organizational strategies in order to take into account both the patient, relatives and healthcare professionals as vital for creating a patient-centred practice, organization and professional environment.

Digital displacements in patient-professional relations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relational consequences of electronic patient records based on co-produced data from pregnant women's IT supported self-reporting. The analysis unfolds how the clinical encounter between patient and professional is reconfigured in the digitized society. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a grounded theory analysis based on observations and interviews in an antenatal care unit. The study draws on empirical material generated through observations of the clinical encounters between pregnant women and midwifes, interviews with managers and midwifes, field notes and policy documents. Findings The author argues that the use of technology and co-produced data displace tasks and relations between healthcare professional and patient. The analysis shows that four modes of organizational patient involvement are enacted: involvement in administrative tasks, involvement in professional resistance, individualized involvement, and homogenized involvement of patients that tends to categorize the pregnancy roughly as either "normal" or "abnormal." Originality/value This study contributes to qualitative research in digitization and patient involvement in health organization studies by showing how digital technology distributes the midwife's autonomy, tasks and knowledge about the patient with both intended and unintended consequences. The argument goes beyond the prevalent prescriptive approaches to e-government and co-production, instead providing a critical analytical perspective on the promises of delivering efficient and patient-centered healthcare.

"The citizen is stepping into a new role"-Policy interpretations of patient and public involvement in Finland

Involving patients and the public in healthcare decision-making is on the policy agenda in several countries. The aim of our study was to describe and analyse the development of patient and public involvement from a policy perspective. We argue that the language of health policies can influence both the aims and the development of involvement methods. In this study health policy documents, which have guided the development of patient and public involvement in Finland have been analysed using methods of Membership Categorisation Analysis. This has enabled us to explore how health policy documents categorise patients and the wider public in relation to involvement and orientate the involvement activities in which people are able to participate. Different set of abilities, expectations, responsibilities and opportunities is attached to the categories of patient, risk group, service user, customer and expert. Health policy documents often equate involvement with choice making by service users and customers; or as involvement in service development by experts. In both of these cases, involvement is depicted as an individual activity that requires personal responsibility and specialist knowledge. Although involvement opportunities have overall increased, they are primarily available to people that are "participation ready" and able to adopt roles promoted in policies. Health policy documents produce one interpretation of involvement, nevertheless it is important that diverse groups of patients, the public and health professionals participate in the discussion and express their views, which may differ from those of policy makers.

User involvement and experiential knowledge in interprofessional rehabilitation: a grounded theory study

Background

User involvement is increasingly important in developing relevant health care services. The aim of this study was to contribute to a deeper understanding of user involvement and patients’ experiential knowledge as recognized and incorporated into clinical practice by rehabilitation professionals.

Methods

A qualitative design using a grounded theory approach was applied. Data were collected by observations of the interprofessional meetings at two rehabilitation units treating patients with traumatic brain injury and multiple trauma and by individual semi-structured interviews with rehabilitation professionals.

Results

The professionals recognized and incorporated user involvement into clinical practice as formal or authentic. Formal user involvement was sometimes considered pro forma. Incorporating patient’ experiential knowledge was considered a part of authentic user involvement. Possible gaps between the patients’ experiential knowledge and professional expertise were recognized. Challenges included dealing with ‘artifacts’, sources of information external to the patients’ own experiences, and addressing the patients’ possibly reduced insight due to trauma.

Conclusion

Patients’ experiential knowledge was recognized as an essential component of the professionals’ knowledge base. The professionals considered user involvement and patients’ experiential knowledge as part of their clinical practice. Implementation of user involvement and contribution of patients’ experiential knowledge could be improved by understanding the issues raised in practice, such as possible negative consequences of user involvement in form of burdening or disempowering the patients. A better understanding of the characteristics and measures of user involvement is necessary in order to be able to offer its full benefits for both the patients and the professionals.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1808-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Envolvimento dos pacientes no gerenciamento da qualidade dos serviços de saúde

Resumo Objetivo: Identificar o estágio de envolvimento dos pacientes nas Instituições de saúde brasileiras, nos programas de melhoria da qualidade e segurança. Métodos: Abordagem quantitativa, através de uma pesquisa de avaliação com 141 Instituições, localizadas em 18 estados e no Distrito Federal, no período de fevereiro a maio de 2016. Para coleta dos dados foi aplicado um questionário pela web, utilizando o software de questionários e pesquisas SurveyMonkeyÓ. No questionário, além das perguntas para caracterização das Instituições e dos respondentes, sete perguntas foram relacionadas às atividades de participação dos pacientes nos processos de gerenciamento da qualidade. Resultados: As atividades realizadas pela maior parte das Instituições foram “pesquisa de satisfação dos pacientes” e “processo formal para comunicação com os pacientes em relação às suas dúvidas, sugestões e reclamações”. A média de atividades realizadas foi de 3,84 de um total de 7 atividades avaliadas. Conclusão: Considerando uma escala de 0 a 3, aproximadamente 70% das Instituições foram classificadas entre os estágios 0 (paciente não é envolvido) e 1 (participação na avaliação das metas de qualidade).