Fundamentals of Nursing

Introduction: Nurses face many legal and ethical issues while providing patient care and it is essential to understand the law and the way it affects the nursing practice. A study was conducted with the objectives to assess the knowledge on legal and ethical aspects in patient care among staff nurses, find out the association between level of knowledge and selected demographic variables and provide an awareness program on legal and ethical aspects inpatient care. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out among 230 staff nurses working in critical care units. Data was collected by using demographic proforma and structured knowledge questionnaire on legal and ethical aspects in patient care. Result and conclusion: Only 10% of nurses had good knowledge and 77% had average knowledge. There was no significant association between level of knowledge and selected demographic variables. There is a need to improve the knowledge of staff nurses on legal and ethical aspects in patient care which will help to improve their critical thinking ability and decision making during legal and ethical issues.

Background: One of the soft skill competence in nursing is caring. Caring in nursing is a professional development component of nurse in hospital. By considering the fact that caring professional development had not been optimal yet for clinic nurses in the hospital, so a caring soft skills training was required as one of the method to improve carative caring nurses' skills. Methods: A quasi-experimental,pretest-posttest design without a control group was applied. The intervention consisted of the provision of material for 3 days, and training. Self-assessment nurse with CNPI (Caring Nurse-Patient Interactions Scale) was used. There are 53 nurses enrolled.This effect was analyzed by using General Linier Model test. Results: there are differences of carative factors before and after soft skills caring training with p<0,05. The highest increase in mean score of carative factors is environment (provision for a supportive, protective and/or corrective mental, physical, societal and spiritual environment). Carative factors that have not yet reached either category are factor 3 sensibility: Cultivation of sensitivity to one's self and to others, factor 6 Problem-solving: Systematic use of a creative problem-solving caring process and a factor of 10 Spirituality: Allowance for existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces Conclusions: soft skills caring training was proven effective in improving carative factors of nurses caring. This research recommended that soft skills caring training are commonly regarded to be an essential strategy for promoting caring nurses in nursing practices.

Objective: Analyzing students' experiences about clinical practice will help instructors prepare learning settings where students can have more positive experiences. The purpose of this article is to identify nursing students' views regarding their clinical placement. Method: This descriptive study was conducted with fresher's in a nursing department of university during spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year in Ankara/Turkey. The data was collected with the question forms prepared by the researchers after the final exam of the "Fundamentals of Nursing Course". 253 students were provided questionnaires to answer, which were collected after completion. Results: Students mean age was 20.2; 85.4% of them were female and 40.3% of them choose this department for employment opportunities. Students evaluated professional competence and presence of nurses, as "Good" and "Very Good" (with 80% to 90%) and, communication between nurse and patient as "Moderate" and "Bad" (with 60%). Prejudices regarding clinical practice (with 38.7%), fear of making mistake (with 55.3%), prejudices toward clinical setting (with 58.5%), and grade anxiety (with 29.2%) were stated as factors that affect clinical learning negatively. Conclusion: Students' learning was affected by healthcare professions especially nurses, they worked with, instructors as well as some factors stem from themselves (fear of making a mistake, grade anxiety).

Objective: This study aimed to assess the life quality, comfort and anxiety levels of family caregivers of cancer patients in Turkey. Methods: The study population consisted of first degree relatives caring for cancer patients who went to the adult unit of a Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Hospital in a University to receive ambulatory chemotherapy (n=85). The study data were collected by using the Individual Description Form, the Scale of Quality of Life-Family Version (QOL-FV), General Comfort Scale (GCQ) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: It was determined that the family members had an age average of 41.31±12.60 (min-max: 19-64) and a caring duration of 13.17±9.07 months. 54.1% were women, 44.7% workers and 70.6% married. Total score averages of family members caring for cancer patients were determined as follows; QOL-FV; 164.51±56.32, GCQ; 2.62±0.44, BAI; 16.49±14.09. Conclusions: It was determined that family members caring for cancer patients have a moderate level of life quality, comfort and anxiety. Nurses should assess their caregiver's quality of life, comfort, anxiety levels before, during and after treatment periods and educate them about adverse effects of cancer treatments and needed care.