Faculty of Education, Health and Community

Background: Current human resources planning models in nursing are unreliable and ineffective as they consider volumes, but ignore effects on quality in patient care. The project RN4CAST aims innovative forecasting methods by addressing not only volumes, but quality of nursing staff as well as quality of patient care. Methods/Design: A multi-country, multilevel cross-sectional design is used to obtain important unmeasured factors in forecasting models including how features of hospital work environments impact on nurse recruitment, retention and patient outcomes. In each of the 12 participating European countries, at least 30 general acute hospitals were sampled. Data are gathered via four data sources (nurse, patient and organizational surveys and via routinely collected hospital discharge data). All staff nurses of a random selection of medical and surgical units (at least 2 per hospital) were surveyed. The nurse survey has the purpose to measure the experiences of nurses on their job (e.g. job satisfaction, burnout) as well as to allow the creation of aggregated hospital level measures of staffing and working conditions. The patient survey is organized in a sub-sample of countries and hospitals using a one-day census approach to measure the patient experiences with medical and nursing care. In addition to conducting a patient survey, hospital discharge abstract datasets will be used to calculate additional patient outcomes like in-hospital mortality and failure-to-rescue. Via the organizational survey, information about the organizational profile (e.g. bed size, types of technology available, teaching status) is collected to control the analyses for institutional differences. This information will be linked via common identifiers and the relationships between different aspects of the nursing work environment and patient and nurse outcomes will be studied by using multilevel regression type analyses. These results will be used to simulate the impact of changing different aspects of the nursing work environment on quality of care and satisfaction of the nursing workforce. Discussion: RN4CAST is one of the largest nurse workforce studies ever conducted in Europe, will add to accuracy of forecasting models and generate new approaches to more effective management of nursing resources in Europe.

Aims and objectives. To test the validity and reliability of the newly developed Irish Nursing Minimum Data Set for mental health (I-NMDS (MH)) to ensure its clinical usability. Background. Internationally, difficulties exist in defining the contribution mental health nursing makes to patient care. Structured information systems, like the Nursing Minimum Data Set, have been developed internationally to gather standardised information to increase the visibility of nursing in the health care system. Design. This study employed a quantitative, longitudinal research design. Method. A convenience sample of mental health nurses (n = 184) collected data on the nursing care of patients (n = 367) from care settings attached to 11 hospitals across Ireland. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), ridit analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were used to establish the construct and discriminative validity and scale score reliability of the I-NMDS (MH). Results. Goodness of Fit scores indicated that the I-NMDS (MH) possesses good construct validity. Alpha coefficients for each factor were above the recommended 0AE7 level. Ridit analysis inferred that the I-NMDS (MH) discriminated between elements of nursing care across acute inpatient and community based care settings. Conclusions. The I-NMDS (MH) possesses a sound theoretical base, has scale score reliability and possesses good discriminative validity. The valid and reliable I-NMDS (MH) is the first NMDS to be developed specifically for mental health. Relevance to clinical practice. Data collected using the I-NMDS (MH) will increase the visibility of the contribution mental health nurses make to healthcare delivery. In addition, it will support evidence based practice in mental health to improve further the effectiveness of nursing care in the future.

Background: In a study to establish the interrater reliability of the Irish Nursing Minimum Data Set (I-NMDS) for mental health difficulties relating to the choice of reliability test statistic were encountered. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to highlight the difficulties associated with testing interrater reliability for an ordinal scale using a relatively homogenous sample and the recommended kw statistic. Method: One pair of mental health nurses completed the I-NMDS for mental health for a total of 30 clients attending a mental health day centre over a two-week period. Data was analysed using the kw and percentage agreement statistics. Results: A total of 34 of the 38 I-NMDS for mental health variables with lower than acceptable levels of kw reliability scores achieved acceptable levels of reliability according to their percentage agreement scores. Conclusion: The study findings implied that, due to the homogeneity of the sample, low variability within the data resulted in the 'base rate problem' associated with the use of kw statistic. Conclusions point to the interpretation of kw in tandem with percentage agreement scores. Suggestions that kw scores were low due to chance agreement and that one should strive to use a study sample with known variability are queried. r

It is frequently claimed that nursing is vital to the safe, humane provision of health care and health service to our populations. It is also recognized however, that nursing is a costly health care resource that must be used effectively and efficiently.There is a growing recognition, from within the nursing profession, health care policy makers and society, of the need to analyse the contribution of nursing to health care and its costs. This becomes increasingly pertinent and urgent in a situation, such as that existing in Ireland, where the current financial crisis has lead to public sector employment moratoria, staff cuts and staffing deficits, combined with increased patient expectation, escalating health care costs, and a health care system restructuring and reform agenda. Such factors, increasingly common internationally, make the identification and effective use of the nursing contribution to health care an issue of international importance. This paper seeks to explore the nature of nursing and the function of the nurse within a 21st century health care system, with a focus on the Irish context. However, this analysis fits into and is relevant to the international context and discussion regarding the nursing workforce.This paper uses recent empirical studies exploring the domains of activity and focus of nursing, together with nurses perceptions of their role and work environment, in order to connect those findings with core conceptual questions about the nature and function of nursing.

Aim. This paper is a report of an exploration of the experiences of patients with end-stage kidney disease who were having haemodialysis. Background. The losses and lifestyle disruptions caused by end-stage kidney disease are a fundamental source of suffering for people. The hope of a transplant is an important factor in people's ability to cope with end-stage kidney disease and dialysis. Method. A Heideggerian phenomenological methodology was used. A purposive sample was selected of 16 patients with end-stage kidney disease having hospitalbased haemodialysis therapy in the Republic of Ireland. Qualitative interviews were conducted in 2006-2007. Data were analysed using qualitative interpretive analysis. Findings. The overarching pattern identified was 'Waiting for a kidney transplant'. This pattern consisted of three themes: living in hope, uncertainty and being on hold. Participants described their experiences of living in hope while they waited for a kidney transplant. However, as the waiting time continued indefinitely, participants became uncertain, and this meant that they were unable to contemplate opportunities in the future. Moreover, the restrictions of haemodialysis therapy prevented them from performing many of the activities they had taken for granted in the past. Consequently, they described their experiences of being on hold while they waited for a kidney transplant. Conclusion. Nurses should engage in open and honest discussions with patients in relation to kidney transplantation so that they are able to recognize and address their concerns about kidney transplantation.

This paper aims to critique the phenomenon of advanced patient autonomy and choice in healthcare within the specific context of self-testing devices. A growing number of self-testing medical devices are currently available for home use. The premise underpinning many of these devices is that they assist individuals to be more autonomous in the assessment and management of their health. Increased patient autonomy is assumed to be a good thing. We take issue with this assumption and argue that self-testing provides a specific example how increased patient autonomy and choice within healthcare might not best serve the patient population. We propose that current interpretations of autonomy in healthcare are based on negative accounts of liberty to the detriment of a more relational understanding. We also propose that Kantian philosophy is often applied to the healthcare arena in an inappropriate manner. We draw on the philosophical literature and examples from the self-testing process to support these claims. We conclude by offering an alternative account of autonomy based on the interrelated concepts of relationality, care and responsibility.

The education-practice gap is not new to lecturers or practitioners and has been widely discussed in previous literature. This paper explores issues relating to this concept from Habermas' critical theory viewpoint. The historical and philosophical underpinnings of critical theory, as well as its central elements, are described. A recent incident involving one of the authors stimulated reflection on the issue of clinical assessment and the communication gap between teachers and practitioners. Viewing the incident through a critical theory lens allowed two main themes to be explored: the balance of knowledge and power in the education-practice arena and the personal issues involved in failing a student. Several questions emerged during this reflective period. Are nurses prepared to search for answers to these questions?

The use of patient restrictions (e.g. involuntary admission, seclusion, restraint) is a complex ethical dilemma in psychiatric care. The present study explored nurses' (n ¼ 22) and physicians' (n ¼ 5) perceptions of what actually happens when an aggressive behaviour episode occurs on the ward and what alternatives to seclusion and restraint are actually in use as normal standard practice in acute psychiatric care. The data were collected by focus group interviews and analysed by inductive content analysis. The participants believed that the decision-making process for managing patients' aggressive behaviour contains some in-built ethical dilemmas. They thought that patients' subjective perspective received little attention. Nevertheless, the staff proposed and appeared to use a number of alternatives to minimize or replace the use of seclusion and restraint. Medical and nursing staff need to be encouraged and taught to: (1) tune in more deeply to reasons for patients' aggressive behaviour; and (2) use alternatives to seclusion and restraint in order to humanize patient care to a greater extent.

This article is based on a discourse analysis of the complete nursing records of 45 patients and concerns the modes of rationality that mediated text-based accounts relating to patient care that nurses recorded. The analysis draws on the work of the critical theorist, Jürgen Habermas, who conceptualised rationality in the context of modernity according to two types: purposive rationality based on an instrumental logic and value rationality based on ethical considerations and moral reasoning. Our analysis revealed that purposive rationality dominated the content of nursing documentation, as evidenced by a particularly biocentric and modernist construction of the workings of the body within the texts. There was little reference in the documentation to central themes of contemporary nursing discourses, such as notions of partnership, autonomy, and self-determination which are associated with value rationality. Drawing on Habermas, we argue that this nursing documentation depicted the colonisation of the socio-cultural lifeworld by the bio-technocratic system. Where nurses recorded disagreements that patients had with medical regimes, the central struggle inherent in the project of modernity became transparent-the tension between the rational and instrumental control of people through scientific regulation and the autonomy of the subject. The article concludes by problematising communicative action within the context of nursing practice.

Psychiatric patients are liable to stereotyping by healthcare providers. We explored attitudes toward caring for psychiatric patients among 13 nurses working in general hospitals in Ireland. Participants thought aloud in response to a simulated patient case and described a critical incident of a patient for whom they had cared. Two attitudinal orientations were identified that correspond to stereotypical depictions of risk and vulnerability. The nurses described psychosocial care strategies that were pragmatic rather than authentically person-centered, with particular associations between risk-oriented attitudes and directive nursing care. Nurses had expectations likely to impede relationship building and collaborative care. Implications arising include the need for improved knowledge about psychiatric conditions and for access to professional development in targeted therapeutic communication skills.

Self-neglect can be understood as the failure to engage in those activities which a given culture deems necessary to maintain a socially accepted standard of personal and household hygiene and carry out activities needed to maintain health status. Self-neglect is bound up in a discourse which equates dirt with disease and in which transgressions of selfcare norms can be labelled as a medical syndrome. The notion of self-neglect as a social construction is the theoretical perspective which provides the framework for the study reported here. Judgements regarding self-neglect may be social judgements influenced by professional socialisation and cultural values. The belief that different groups of nurses may have different constructions of self-neglect will be investigated and the factors which influence these judgements will be explored in three groups of nurses. The inclusion of nursing students will allow some picture to emerge as to whether judgements develop over time or are relatively constant across the career path, albeit within the limitations of a nonlongitudinal design.