Development of a questionnaire to measure the key attributes of the community palliative care specialist nurse role

Corporate social responsibility and patient's intention to revisit: A serial mediation study witnessing the healthcare sector

The present study aims to identify the impact of corporate social responsibility on patients' intention to revisit the healthcare industry. Furthermore, mediating the role of patient satisfaction and patient loyalty along with serial mediation through corporate social responsibility =  > patient satisfaction =  > patient loyalty =  > intention to revisit was also tested. The present study is quantitative in nature, while the data for the study was collected using purposive sampling from 321 patients working in eight hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. For the data analysis, statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and structural equation modeling through the partial least square approach (smart-PLS v 3.3.9) were employed. The study results show that corporate social responsibility forms a significantly positive relationship with patient satisfaction, patient loyalty, and patient intention to revisit. Study findings confirmed the mediating role of patient satisfaction and patient loyalty. Furthermore, serial mediation through patient satisfaction and patient loyalty was also confirmed. In the current competitive environment, understanding the direct and indirect effects of CSR activities on patient satisfaction, patient loyalty, and intentions to revisit is of the utmost importance for hospitals. These activities provide hospitals with the opportunity to take certain actions to improve patient satisfaction, and these actions increase their loyalty, which in turn encourages their intention to revisit.

Dimensions of good palliative nursing care: Expert panel consensus and perceptions of palliative professionals

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To analyse the dimensions of quality of palliative nursing care and to explore the perceptions of professionals for the development and validation of the Palliative Nursing Care Quality Scale.

BACKGROUND

The study of palliative nursing care quality has been approached from analysis of the competencies of palliative care nurses, based on various theoretical models. However, there are fewer qualitative empirical studies that have evaluated what good palliative nursing care is and what its dimensions are.

DESIGN

Mixed-method, Delphi approach and exploratory qualitative study.

METHODS

Consensus by a panel of experts using the Delphi technique and semi-structured interviews. The study was reported in a comprehensive manner following COREQ criteria. Data collection took place between January and June 2018.

RESULTS

The eight-person expert panel reached consensus on the following dimensions of the Palliative Nursing Care Quality Scale: control and relief of symptoms, family and/or primary caregiver, therapeutic relationship, spiritual support and continuity of care. Thematic analysis of ten interviews identified four emergent themes related to good nursing care: (1) the patient and family as a whole; (2) finding meaning; (3) responsible communication; and (4) caring for the human element.

CONCLUSIONS

The quality of palliative nursing care goes beyond providing comprehensive care; it means meticulously looking after every detail of what is important to the patient. The expectations of professionals are not as important. Instead, care should be based primarily on the needs and respect for the wishes of the patient and their family.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Specifying the quality of nursing care in routine practice and reaching a consensus on its dimensions means moving towards excellence in care, as well as improving the professional profile of advanced practice palliative care nurses.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Two primary caregivers participated in the panel of experts and the semi-structured interview.

[Validation of a questionnaire that measures perceptions of the role of community nursing professionals in Peru]

OBJECTIVE

To develop a valid and reliable scale to measure the role of the nursing professional in the community (REFCO).

DESIGN

Observational with cross-sectional and instrumental design. SITE: Populated centers and communities of the coast, highlands and jungle from Peru.

PARTICIPANTS

The validation phase of the questionnaire had the voluntary participation of 402 Peruvian adults (50.7% from the coast, 40.5% from the highlands and 8.8% from the jungle).

INTERVENTIONS

The elaborated questionnaire that measures perceptions about the role of the nursing professional in the community was applied.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

The psychometric properties of the REFCO scale were analyzed, such as content validation and internal consistency through the calculation of Aiken's V, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and later confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), respectively. Finally, the reliability of the scale was calculated.

RESULTS

Overall, all values were statistically significant when evaluated with the V-Aiken coefficient. Likewise, the skewness and kurtosis values of all the items of the instrument did not exceed the range >±1.5. The correlations between factors 1 and 2 were significant (p < .05). The reliability of the scale presents a Cronbach's α coefficient = 0.865.

CONCLUSIONS

The REFCO scale has 9 items and 2 dimensions; outreach and education; with content and construct validity that provide evidence for community nursing categories, which is useful for measuring nursing work in the community field.

A conceptual analysis of the meaning of comfort at the end-of-life using the Walker and Avant (2014) Framework

Objective

The aim of the authors is to clarify the concept of comfort at the end-of-life in order to support understandings of fundamental nursing care needed at this stage of healthcare.

Methods

The Walker and Avant framework was applied to develop a deeper understanding of the concept of comfort at the end of life.

Results

Five defining attributes of comfort in the end-of-life were identified and they are having a peaceful home-life environment, trust and consolation, proximity and social-cultural support, alleviation of suffering, and a process of integrated intervention by nurses.

Conclusions

At the end-of-life patients commonly experience physical, psychological, social-cultural, and environmental discomfort. Patients’ families also encounter significant challenges. However, their comfort needs are often secondary to that of the patient. Additionally, a lack of clarity exists regarding the holistic meaning of comfort at the end-of-life, which can largely be confined to understandings of physical comfort for the patient, with a limited understanding of addressing family/caregivers’ needs. Therefore, this concept analysis may provide some guidance in this regard and also provides support toward a more integrated understanding of the concept.

A gap between the philosophy and the practice of palliative healthcare: sociological perspectives on the practice of nurses in specialised palliative homecare

Palliative care philosophy is based on a holistic approach to patients, but research shows that possibilities for living up to this philosophy seem limited by historical and administrative structures. From the nurse perspective, this article aims to explore nursing practice in specialised palliative homecare, and how it is influenced by organisational and cultural structures. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews with nine nurses were conducted, inspired by Bourdieu. The findings showed that nurses consolidate the doxa of medicine, including medical-professional values that configure a control-oriented, positivistic approach, supported by the organising policy for clinical practice. Hierarchically, nurses were positioned under doctors: medical rounds functioned as a structuring structure for their working day. They acted as medical assistants, and the prevailing medical logic seemed to make it difficult for nurses to meet their own humanistic ideals. Only short time slots allowed nurses to prioritise psychosocial needs of patients and relatives. Point-of-actions had high priority, added financial resources and ensured that budgets were allocated. Weekly visits made it possible for nurses to measure, control and govern patients' drugs and symptoms which was a necessity for their function as medical assistants. The findings challenge nurses to take on an ethical point of view, partly to ensure that patients and their families receive good palliative care focusing on more than medical issues and logic, and partly to strengthen the nurses' profession in the palliative field and help them implement palliative care philosophy in practice.

The role and function of the palliative care nurse practitioner in Israel

BACKGROUND

Research studies emphasise the importance of the nurse practitioner (NP) role in the continuum of care, patient health outcomes, and the formation of a positive work environment. There are different reports about the extent of care delivered by the nurse practitioner in different fields of expertise and in different countries.

AIM

To present the characteristics of nurse practitioners in Israel, the extent of the role and practice, activities, role responsibilities, and job satisfaction.

METHODS

A descriptive computerised survey targeted palliative care nurse practitioners (PCNP). The study included nurses from all regions and districts in Israel, regardless of the nurses' health maintenance organisation or hospital affiliations.

RESULTS

NPs reported performing fewer frequent physical assessments, medication prescriptions issued, and lab and imaging referrals.

CONCLUSION

The complexity of the implementation of the NP role requires prior planning for role introduction, mentorship for the NP, and understanding of the interface between the NP and other professional staff.

Patient reported outcome measures for measuring dignity in palliative and end of life care: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Patient reported outcome measures are frequently used standard questionnaires or tools designed to collect information from patients regarding their health status and care. Their use enables accurate and relevant insight into changes in health, quality of life, and symptom severity to be acquired. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify PROMs that had been subject to rigorous development and were suitable for use in palliative and end of life care for clinical practice and/or research purposes. The review had a specific focus on measures which could be used to assess perceptions of dignity in these contexts.

METHODS

A scoping review of English-language papers published between 2005 and 2015. Searches were devised in conjunction with an information science specialist and were undertaken in Medline; PsycINFO; EMBASE; CINAHL; Social Science Citation Index; ASSIA; CENTRAL; CDSR; DARE; HTA; Oxford PROM Bibliography; PROQOLID, using dignity related terms such as personhood; dignity or dignified; patient-centred care; which were linked (via the Boolean operator "AND") to care-related terms such as terminal care; hospice care; palliative care; end of life. Papers were assessed against inclusion criteria and appraised for quality.

RESULTS

The search strategy produced an initial 7845 articles. After three rounds of eligibility assessment, eight articles discussing eight patients reported outcome measures were found to meet the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review. These underwent a thorough critical appraisal process. All seven studies were empirical research focused on the development and testing of a PROM.

CONCLUSIONS

The eight patient reported outcome measures had all undergone some psychometric testing, and covered dignity aspects suggesting that they could be considered for use for research purposes to assess dignity. There were also indications that some could be implemented into a clinical setting. However, each measure had limitations and scope for further development.

What establishes an excellent nurse? A focus group and Delphi panel approach

BACKGROUND

Over the past few years, the complexity of the health care system in which nurses are required to practice has increased considerably, magnifying the need for excellent professionals with a specific set of knowledge, skills and attitudes. However, the characteristics that distinguish an excellent nurse have not yet been clarified. The aim of this study was to determine nurses' perspectives regarding characteristics associated with an excellent nurse in order to elicit a conceptual profile.

METHOD

A focus group design followed by Delphi panel content validation was utilized. Information regarding nurses' perspectives was derived from six focus group discussions comprising 19 nurses involved in hospital practice and 24 nurses with experience in mental health care. The analysis of the focus group discussions resulted in nine domains whereby content validity was achieved with contributions from a Delphi panel survey with 26 professionals.

RESULTS

As determined by the survey, a combination of these specified aspects characterize an excellent nurse: analytical, communicative, cooperative, coordinating, disseminates knowledge, empathic, evidence-driven, innovative and introspective.

CONCLUSION

Determining what establishes an excellent nurse according to experienced nurses is valuable as this information can influence the broadening curriculum for educating future nurses to meet the needs in the professional field, contributing to the quality of care. This conceptual profile can be used as a reference guide for supervisors and professionals to personally improve their clinical practice as well as for education.

Patient reported outcome measures of quality of end-of-life care: A systematic review

End-of-life (EoL) care¹ is increasingly used as a generic term in preference to palliative care or terminal care, particularly with reference to individuals with chronic disease, who are resident in community and long-term care (LTC) settings. This review evaluates studies based on patient reported outcome measures (PROMS) of quality of EoL care across all health-care settings. From 1041 citations, 12 studies were extracted by searches conducted in EBSCO, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane, Open Grey and Google Scholar databases. At present, the evidence base for EoL care is founded on cancer care. This review highlights the paucity of studies that evaluate quality of EoL care for patients with chronic disease outside the established cancer-acute care paradigm, particularly in LTC. This review highlights the absence of any PROMs for the estimated 60% of patients in LTC with cognitive impairment. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are critical to understanding how EoL care services and practices affect patients' health and EoL experience. PROMs describe the quality of care from the patient's perspective and add balance to existing clinical or proxy-derived knowledge on the quality of care and services provided.

[Reliability and external validity of a questionnaire to assess the knowledge about risk and cardiovascular disease and in patients attending Spanish community pharmacies]

Objetivos

Determinar la fiabilidad test-retest de un cuestionario, con validación preliminar, para valorar el conocimiento sobre riesgo cardiovascular (RCV) y enfermedad cardiovascular, en pacientes atendidos en farmacias comunitarias de España. Complementar la validez externa, estableciendo la relación entre una actividad educativa y el aumento del conocimiento sobre RCV y enfermedad cardiovascular.

Diseño

Subanálisis del estudio clínico controlado EMDADER-CV, en el que se aplicó un cuestionario de conocimiento sobre RCV en 4 momentos.

Emplazamiento

Farmacia comunitaria española.

Participantes

Trescientos veintitrés pacientes del grupo control, de los 640 que finalizaron el estudio.

Mediciones principales

Coeficiente de correlación intraclase para evaluar la fiabilidad en 3 comparaciones (postactividad educativa con semana 16, postactividad educativa con semana 32, y semana 16 con semana 32); y prueba no paramétrica de Friedman para establecer la relación entre una actividad educativa oral y escrita con el aumento del conocimiento.

Resultados

Para los 323 pacientes, en las 3 comparaciones, los valores del coeficiente de correlación intraclase fueron 0,624; 0,608 y 0,801 (fiabilidad aceptable-buena a excelente). Por su parte, la prueba de Friedman mostró relación entre la actividad educativa y el aumento del conocimiento, estadísticamente significativa (p < 0,0001).

Conclusiones

Acorde con el coeficiente de correlación intraclase, el cuestionario orientado a valorar el conocimiento sobre el RCV y enfermedad cardiovascular tiene una fiabilidad entre aceptable y excelente, lo cual, sumado a la validación previa, indica que dicho instrumento cumple los criterios de validez y fiabilidad. Además, el cuestionario evidencia capacidad de relacionar un aumento en el conocimiento con una intervención educativa, característica que complementa su validez externa.