Effectiveness of home visit nursing on improving mortality, hospitalization, institutionalization, satisfaction, and quality of life among older people: Umbrella review.

This umbrella review followed the JBI methodology and synthesized systematic reviews of the effectiveness of long-term home visit nursing for older people (≥ 60 years) on improving mortality, hospitalization, institutionalization, patient satisfaction, and quality of life. Eight bibliographic databases were searched, and 10 reviews with 22 distinct relevant trials (n = 10,765 participants) were included. Mortality was the most frequently examined outcome and satisfaction was the least examined (n = nine and one reviews, respectively). Home visit nursing had a favorable effect on reducing the number of admissions to hospital (n = 1,152 participants in two trials vs. 788 participants in three trials) and no effect on other outcomes. The evidence of the effectiveness of long-term home visit nursing for older people is minimal. Future research needs to be based on a theoretical foundation that explains how interventions are expected to work.

Ward-level nurse turnover and related workplace factors in long-term care hospitals: A cross-sectional survey.

AIM: To explore the association between the ward-level nurse turnover rate and the ward's organisational, patient and nurse characteristics in long-term care (LTC) hospitals. BACKGROUND: Nurse turnover adversely impacts not only LTC hospitals through higher recruitment and replacement costs but also resident health outcomes. METHODS: This study employed a cross-sectional design with secondary analyses. Participants were 199 ward managers and 2,508 nurses in LTC hospitals across Japan. Data were collected between September and November 2015. RESULTS: The wards with higher nurse turnover were significantly associated with a non-12-hr work shift, higher rate of patients with intravenous hyperalimentation (IVH), lower average of nurse emotional exhaustion, lower average of nurse-perceived quality of the care process and lower rate of employment stability as the reason for choosing the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: Actual ward-level nurse turnover can be influenced by factors related to the organisation (e.g. shift style and employment stability), patient (e.g. patients with IVH) and nurse attributions (e.g. burnout, perceived care quality). IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: To minimize nurse turnover in LTC hospitals, multifactorial ward-level interventions would be possible, such as adjusting for shift work, attending to medical procedures or improving nurses' emotional exhaustion and perceptions regarding care quality.

The self-care coping process in patients with chronic heart failure: A qualitative study.

AIM: To understand the self-care coping process among chronic heart failure patients. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have been carried out to understand the experience and the challenges of living with chronic heart failure. However, the coping processes that patients use to overcome self-care challenges are less understood. DESIGN: A qualitative design with qualitative content analysis of data was employed. METHODS: Purposive sampling was conducted to recruit inpatients with chronic heart failure between March 1, 2014-March 1, 2015, in a teaching hospital in Taiwan. Semi-structured interviews (N = 27) were completed, and a content analysis was performed using an inductive method to explore the self-care coping processes in patients with chronic heart failure. RESULTS: The findings were categorised into three themes: (a) responding to chronic heart failure self-care (dealing with negative emotions, accepting reality and struggling between a self-care regime and self preference), (b) finding ways to live with chronic heart failure (enhancing understanding and knowledge about chronic heart failure, maintaining outer and inner self, engaging positively/negatively with others and relying on religious thoughts and seeking consolation) and (c) reinterpreting chronic heart failure and performing meaning-oriented coping (re-evaluating the meaning of life, assigning a new perspective for chronic heart failure and discovering a deeper meaning behind it). CONCLUSION: Self-appearance concerns should be given more attention by healthcare professionals. Meaning-oriented coping was found to be helpful to cope with the challenges of chronic heart failure. Thus, there is a need to develop interventions associated with meaning-oriented coping to enhance coping strategies for chronic heart failure patients. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: It is suggested for healthcare professionals to understand an individual's coping process and support people with chronic heart failure who struggle with self-care coping. Furthermore, specific interventions including meaning-oriented interventions might benefit people with chronic heart failure to cope more successfully.

The Relationship Between Muscle Strength and Body Composition Measures and Cancer-Related Fatigue: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) substantially affects daily living and quality of life, but objective CRF measures remain limited. This review aimed to identify the correlation between muscle strength and body composition measures and CRF, as well as potential objective indicators for assessing CRF. LITERATURE SEARCH: PubMed®, MEDLINE®, CINAHL®/PsycINFO®, and Embase® were searched for studies published from January 2000 to January 2021. DATA EVALUATION: Study selection and quality assessment were conducted using the Critical Appraisals Skills Programme checklist and the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology statement. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software was used to perform meta-analysis. SYNTHESIS: 25 studies were selected, and 19 measures were analyzed. CRF negatively correlated with hand grip strength, knee extensor strength, and the sit-to-stand test. No significant correlation was found between body composition measures and CRF. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: The evidence suggests that muscle strength measures may be potential indicators for CRF assessment. Combining objective and subjective CRF assessments could assist clinicians in evaluating the effectiveness of CRF interventions more accurately.

Understanding self care coping styles in patients with chronic heart failure: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Physical and psychological self care coping styles affect the quality of life among patients with heart failure. Understanding coping styles and related factors is important. AIMS: 1) To understand coping involved with self care of physical and psychological aspects in chronic heart failure patients and 2) to understand the associated factors with self care coping. METHOD: A systemic review of databases PubMed, CINHAL, PsycINFO and Airti Library were searched with key terms: 'heart failure', 'coping' and 'self-care' for the period of January 1984 to October 2013. RESULTS: Twenty-six studies were included. Emotion-focused coping (acceptance and disavowal) and problem-focused coping are positively associated with better physical and psychological self care, whereas an emotional approach with escape avoidance was negatively related to adaptive self care. Enhancing the use of emotion-focused coping with acceptance could facilitate problem-focused coping regarding physical self care (medication and dietary adherence) and reduce adverse drug effects. The associated factors in coping styles of physical and psychological self care included socio-demographic factors, health condition-related factors, patient-related factors and spirituality and religion factors. CONCLUSION: Emotion-focused coping with acceptance and disavowal, as well as problem-focused coping, may positively influence physical and psychological self care. Health care professionals should accept and allow patients to use emotion-focused coping, then help patients to use problem-focused coping skills. The influencing factors have important roles in individuals' coping styles. There is a lack of experimental and qualitative research to determine how the influencing factors affect self care coping, since this review is primarily of revealed correlational studies.