Parent Experiences of Child Loss and End-of-Life Care in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: Protocol for a Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Death of a child in the pediatric intensive care unit is a rare event that can occur after failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts, after a brain death diagnosis, or after a decision to limit therapeutic efforts. Nevertheless, even in the case of children with terminal and progressive illnesses, death is a crisis that comes as a surprise to parents and is perceived as unexpected. In the final stage of a child's life, health care staff play a key role in sharing feelings and experiences with the family and in supporting them throughout the process in order to facilitate the grieving process. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of parents whose children have died in a pediatric intensive care unit. METHODS: To address the study aims, a qualitative phenomenological study based on the van Manen proposal will be carried out. The study will be conducted in the pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital. The study population will be parents or guardians (older than 18 years) of children who have died in the unit at least 6 months prior to potential participation in the study. Purposive sampling will be used to ensure sample diversity in relation to experiential variables. Families will be initially contacted by letter sent alongside the standard letter of condolences from the hospital, and then recruited in a subsequent telephone call. The sample size will be determined by data saturation. In-depth interviews will be conducted individually or in pairs. Parents will decide when, how, and where to conduct the interviews, which will be transcribed verbatim and examined using thematic discourse analysis. RESULTS: This study was awarded a grant in December 2020 and was approved by the Medical and Health Research Ethics Committee on December 21, 2020. Data collection started in April 2021, and the results are expected to be published in 2023. CONCLUSIONS: This project is intended to maintain, strengthen, and build on a particular line of research on end-of-life care with a focus on effective coping, spiritual well-being, and the adaptive grieving process. The results will contribute to establishing action guidelines that are both based on the discourses of parents who have experienced the death of a child and geared toward high-quality end-of-life care through dignified death and adaptive grief management. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/43756.

Enactment of compassionate leadership by nursing and midwifery managers: results from an international online survey.

AIM: To explore the views of an international sample of nursing and midwifery managers concerning attributes that they associate with compassionate management. METHOD: A cross-sectional online survey. Using a snowballing sampling method, 1217 responses were collected from nursing and midwifery managers in 17 countries. A total of complete 933 responses to a question related to which actions and behaviours indicated that a manager was exercising compassionate leadership were analysed for this paper. First, content analysis of the responses was conducted, and second, a relative distribution of the identified themes for the overall sample and for each participating country was calculated. RESULTS: Six main themes were identified describing the attributes of a compassionate leader: (1) Virtuous support, (2) Communication, (3) Personal virtues of the manager, (4) Participatory communication, (5) Growth/flourishing/ nurturing and (6) Team cohesion. The first three themes mentioned above collectively accounted for 63% of the responses, and can therefore be considered to be the most important characteristics of compassionate management behaviour. CONCLUSION: The key indicators of compassionate management in nursing and midwifery which were identified emphasise approachability, active and sensitive listening, sympathetic responses to staff members' difficulties (especially concerning child and other caring responsibilities), active support of and advocacy for the staff team and active problem solving and conflict resolution. While there were differences between the countries' views on compassionate healthcare management, some themes were widely represented among different countries' responses, which suggest key indicators of compassionate management that apply across cultures.

Physical Restraint Use in Intensive Care Units: Exploring the Decision-Making Process and New Proposals. A Multimethod Study.

AIM: The general aim of this study was to explore the decision-making process followed by Intensive Care Unit (ICU) health professionals with respect to physical restraint (PR) administration and management, along with the factors that influence it. METHOD: A qual-quant multimethod design was sequenced in two stages: an initial stage following a qualitative methodology; and second, quantitative with a predominant descriptive approach. The multicenter study was undertaken at 17 ICUs belonging to 11 public hospitals in the Madrid region (Spain) across the period 2015 through 2019. The qualitative stage was performed from an interpretative phenomenological perspective. A total of eight discussion groups (DG) were held, with the participation of 23 nurses, 12 patient care nursing assistants, and seven physicians. Intentional purposive sampling was carried out. DG were tape-recorded and transcribed. A thematic analysis of the latent content was performed. In the quantitative stage, we maintained a 96-h observation period at each ICU. Variables pertaining to general descriptive elements of each ICU, institutional pain-agitation/sedation-delirium (PAD) monitoring policies and elements linked to quality of PR use were recorded. A descriptive analysis was performed, and the relationship between the variables was analyzed. The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. FINDINGS: A total of 1070 patients were observed, amounting to a median prevalence of PR use of 19.11% (min: 0%-max: 44.44%). The differences observed between ICUs could be explained by a difference in restraint conceptualization. The various actors involved jointly build up a health care culture and a conceptualization of the terms "safety-risk", which determine decision-making about the use of restraints at each ICU. These shared meanings are the germ of beliefs, values, and rituals which, in this case, determine the greater or lesser use of restraints. There were different profiles of PR use among the units studied: preventive restraints versus "Zero" restraints. The differences corresponded to aspects such as: systematic use of tools for assessment of PAD; interpretation of patient behavior; the decision-making process, the significance attributed to patient safety and restraints; and the feelings generated by PR use. The restraint-free model requires an approach to safety from a holistic perspective, with the involvement of all team members and the family.

Women in a situation of homelessness and violence: a single-case study using the photo-elicitation technique.

BACKGROUND: Violence against women places them in a vulnerable position with regard to homelessness. Although sometimes invisible, women's homelessness is a complex reality shrouded in dramatic biographies that should be sensitively addressed to avoid revictimization. METHODS: With the aim of understanding the chaotic discourse of homeless women's experiences of violence, a qualitative single-case study was conducted using the photo-elicitation technique. Data were analyzed in accordance with grounded theory. RESULTS: The participant's discourse could be summarized in the following categories: "Living in a spiral of violence", "Confronting vulnerability and violence", "Being a strong woman", "New family networks", "Re-building mother-child relationships", and "Nurturing spiritual wellbeing". CONCLUSIONS: Supporting homelessness women requires an approach that focuses on the prevention of re-victimization and the consequences of violence in terms of physical and mental health. Shelters are spaces of care for recovery and represent referential elements for the re-construction of self.

The Importance of Being a Compassionate Leader: The Views of Nursing and Midwifery Managers From Around the World.

INTRODUCTION: Despite the importance of compassionate leadership in health care, many of the existing publications do not account for the effect of culture. The aim of this study is to explore the views of nursing and midwifery managers from different countries in relation to the definition, advantages, and importance of compassion. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory online survey was conducted across 17 countries, containing both closed and open-ended questions. Data from N = 1,217 respondents were analyzed using a directed hybrid approach focusing only on qualitative questions related to compassion-giving. RESULTS: Four overarching themes capture the study's results: (1) definition of compassion, (2) advantages and importance of compassion for managers, (3) advantages and importance of compassion for staff and the workplace, and (4) culturally competent and compassionate leadership. DISCUSSION: Innovative research agendas should pursue further local qualitative empirical research to inform models of culturally competent and compassionate leadership helping mangers navigate multiple pressures and be able to transculturally resonate with their staff and patients.

Nurses' perceptions and demands regarding COVID-19 care delivery in critical care units and hospital emergency services.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health challenge that puts health systems in a highly vulnerable situation. Nurses in critical care units (CCUs) and hospital emergency services (HESs) have provided care to patients with COVID-19 under pressure and uncertainty. OBJECTIVE: To identify needs related to safety, organisation, decision-making, communication and psycho-socio-emotional needs perceived by critical care and emergency nurses in the region of Madrid, Spain, during the acute phase of the epidemic crisis. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study (the first phase of a mixed methods study) with critical care and emergency nurses from 26 public hospitals in Madrid using an online questionnaire. RESULTS: The response rate was 557, with 37.5% reporting working with the fear of becoming infected and its consequences, 28.2% reported elevated workloads, high patient-nurse ratios and shifts that did not allow them to disconnect or rest, while taking on more responsibilities when managing patients with COVID-19 (23.9%). They also reported deficiencies in communication with middle management (21.2%), inability to provide psycho-social care to patients and families and being emotionally exhausted (53.5%), with difficulty in venting emotions (44.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Critical care and emegency nurses may be categorised as a vulnerable population. It is thus necessary to delve deeper into further aspects of their experiences of the pandemic.

The early diagnosis and management of mixed delirium in a patient placed on ECMO and with difficult sedation: A case report.

Delirium represents a serious problem that impacts the physical and cognitive prognosis of patients admitted to intensive care units and requires prompt diagnosis and management. This article describes the case and progress of a patient placed on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation with difficult sedation criteria and an early diagnosis of mixed delirium. During the case report, we reflect on the pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies employed to cope with delirium paying special attention to the non-use of physical restraint measures in order to preserve vital support devices (endotracheal tube or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation cannula). The multimodal and multidisciplinary approach, focused on nursing interventions, strict Pain/Agitation/Delirium monitoring and pharmacological measures, as well as the implementation of measures according to the eCASH (early Comfort using Analgesia, minimal Sedatives and maximal Human Care) concept, were effective, resulting in a relatively short admission considering the severity of the patient's condition and the associated complications. Early independent ambulation was achieved prior to transfer to a hospitalisation unit.