Leadership practices that enable healthful cultures in clinical practice: A realist evaluation.

AIM: To generate, test and refine programme theories that emerged from a rapid realist review investigating practising UK Nurses' and Midwives' experiences of effective leadership strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. BACKGROUND: The realist review of literature generated six tentative theories of healthful leadership practices reflecting, working with people's beliefs and values; being facilitative; multiple means of communication and; practical support. The review yielded little insight into the actual impact of the leadership approaches advocated. METHODS: A realist study, informed by person-centredness using mixed-methods. Online survey (n = 328) and semi-structured interviews (n = 14) of nurses and midwives across the UK in different career positions/specialities. Quantitative data analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis. Framework analysis for qualitative data using context (C), mechanism (M), outcome (O) configurations of the tentative theories. RESULTS: Three refined theories were identified concerning: Visibility and availability; embodying values and; knowing self. Healthful leadership practices are only achievable within organisational cultures that privilege well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Leaders should intentionally adopt practices that promote well-being. 'Knowing self' as a leader, coaching and mentoring practice development is important for leadership development. IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nurses who feel valued, heard, cared for and safe are more likely to remain in clinical practice. Job satisfaction and being motivated to practice with confidence and competence will impact positively on patient outcomes. IMPACT: The study addresses the role of leadership in developing healthful workplace cultures. The main findings were six leadership practices that promote healthful cultures. The research will have an impact on strategic and clinical leaders, nurses and midwives. REPORTING METHOD: This study used EQUATOR checklist, RAMASES II as reporting standards for realist evaluations. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

Stakeholder's experiences of living and caring in technology-rich supported living environments for tenants living with dementia.

BACKGROUND: Technology innovation provides an opportunity to support the rising number of people living with dementia globally. The present study examines experiences of people who have dementia and live in technology enriched supported care models. Additionally, it explores caregiver's attitudes towards technology use with the housing scheme. METHODS: A qualitative research design was adopted, and eight housing schemes consented to take part in the study. A technology audit was undertaken in addition to participant interviews and caregiver survey. Seven peer researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 people living with dementia. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Informal and formal caregivers were invited to complete a survey to capture their attitudes towards technology use. A total of 20 informal and 31 formal caregiver surveys were returned. All surveys were input into Survey Monkey and downloaded into excel for analysis. Closed questions were analysed using descriptive statistics and open-ended questions were organised into themes and described descriptively. RESULTS: The technology audit identified that technologies were in place from as early as 2002. Technology heterogeneity of, both passive and active devices, was found within the housing schemes. Technologies such as wearable devices were reportedly used according to need, and mobile phone use was widely adopted. The themes that developed out of the tenant interviews were: Attitudes and Engagement with Technology; Technology Enhancing Tenants Sense of Security; Seeking Support and Digital Literacy; and Technology Enabled Connection. A lack of awareness about living alongside technology was a major finding. Technologies enabled a sense of reassurance and facilitated connections with the wider community. The interaction with technology presented challenges, for example, remembering passwords, access to Wi-Fi and the identification of its use in an emergency. The caregiver survey reported a range of facilitators and barriers for the use of technology within care. Both types of caregivers held relatively similar views around the benefits of technology, however their views on issues such as privacy and consent varied. Safety was considered more important than right to privacy by family caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides new insight into stakeholder's experiences of living, working and caregiving alongside technology in supported living environments. As the generation of people living with dementia become more tech savvy, harnessing everyday technologies to support care could enable holistic care and support the transition through the care continuum. Advance care planning and technology assessments are at the very core of future technology provision. It is evident that a paternalistic attitudes towards technology use could impact the multitude of benefits technology can play in both health and leisure for people living with dementia and their caregivers.

UK nurses' and midwives' experiences of healthful leadership practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid realist review.

AIM: We aim to explore healthful leadership practices in nursing and midwifery evident within the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the contextual facilitators, barriers and outcomes. BACKGROUND: Globally, the health and care sectors are under pressure and despite nurses and other professionals, demonstrating resilience and resourcefulness in the COVID-19 pandemic; this has negatively impacted on their health and wellbeing and on patient care. EVALUATION: Two searches were conducted in July 2021 and December 2021. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were identified to refine the search, including papers written since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. A total of 38 papers were included principally from the United States and United Kingdom. Ten were research papers; the others were commentaries, opinion pieces and editorials. MS Teams literature repository was created. A unique critical appraisal tool was devised to capture contexts, mechanisms and outcomes whilst reflecting more standardized tools, that is, the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and the Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity and Date tool for reviewing grey literature to refine the search further. KEY ISSUES: Six tentative theories of healthful leadership emerged from the literature around leadership strategies, which are relational, being visible and present; being open and engaging; caring for self and others; embodying values; being prepared and preparing others; and using available information and support. Contextual factors that enable healthful leadership practices are in the main, created by leaders' values, attributes and style. The literature suggests that leaders who embody values of compassion, empathy, courage and authenticity create conditions for positive and healthful relations between leaders and others. Nurse and midwives' voices are however absent from the literature in this review. CONCLUSION: Current available literature would suggest healthful leadership practices are not prioritized by nurse leaders. Perspectives of nurses' and midwives' about the impact of such practices on their wellbeing is also missing. Tentative theories are offered as a means of identifying healthful leadership strategies, the context that enable these and potential outcomes for nurses and midwives. These will be explored in phase two of this study. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse leaders must be adequately prepared to create working environments that support nurses' and midwives' wellbeing, so that they may be able to provide high-quality care. Ensuring a supportive organizational culture, which embodies the values of healthfulness, may help to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses' and midwives' wellbeing in the immediate aftermath and going forward.

Components for providing person-centred palliative healthcare: An umbrella review.

BACKGROUND: Person-centred palliative healthcare is an important approach to maintaining and improving patients' quality of life living with a chronic non-communicable disease and their partners. Such an approach can reduce unnecessary hospitalisation, holistically address the patient and their partners' needs, and help develop an advance care plan. OBJECTIVES: Assess, analyse, and synthesise the currently existing international guidelines for providing person-centred palliative care and identify the key components for providing a high-quality approach. METHODS: An umbrella review methodology of systematic reviews with the method of examination, analysis and synthesis of literature and the compilation method. Relevant systematic reviews of guidelines for providing person-centred palliative care in English, German and/or Slovenian language in PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases, until November 2020. RESULTS: Out of 3,910 records, we included seven reviews for thematic synthesis. We identified four key elements of flourishing in person-centred palliative healthcare: (i) Healthcare staff prerequisites and traits; (ii) Palliative healthcare environment; (iii) Palliative healthcare processes; and (iv) Palliative healthcare outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that person-centred palliative healthcare plays an important role in the comprehensive treatment of patients living with a non-communicable disease accompanied by disturbing symptoms. Therefore, it is necessary to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals and especially general practitioners about the possibilities of including patients with a non-communicable disease in early person-centred palliative healthcare. Tweetable Abstract: #UmbrellaReview of components for providing #personcentredpalliative #healthcare. Components provide healthcare professionals and interdisciplinary #palliative teams with the steps on how to give #personcentredpalliative #healthcare to #patient and #support to #carepartners.

Nurses' perceptions of early person-centred palliative care: a cross-sectional descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is aimed at improving the quality of life of an individual with chronic noncommunicable disease and their care partners. Limitations in the provision of palliative care are mainly lack of knowledge and experience by nurses, fear of treating palliative persons, loss of control over treatment and fear of providing poor-quality palliative care to persons and care partners. AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the perception, knowledge and attitudes of palliative care by nurses who use palliative care approaches in practice, as well as the difference in perception, knowledge and attitudes of palliative care between nurses in Slovenia and Finland. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study. The survey included 440 nurses in clinical environments in Slovenia and Finland with a completed bachelor, master or doctoral level of education. RESULTS: We found statistically significant differences between both countries in the perception of palliative care. Differences between the two countries in the knowledge of palliative care were not confirmed. We confirmed statistically significant differences between both countries in the attitudes of palliative nursing care. CONCLUSION: Early person-centred palliative care is an important part of the holistic and integrative treatment of a person who has a disease with disturbing symptoms. For such an approach, it is important to educate nurses about knowledge, expectations, values and beliefs in developing a concept of person-centred palliative care to improve quality of life. The better perception, knowledge and attitudes of palliative care by nurses may help persons to improve and raise their quality of life, as well as diminish stress in their care partners and improve quality of life.

Understanding care in the past to develop caring science of the future: a historical methodological approach.

In this paper, we explore how the development of historical research methodologies during the last centuries can contribute to more diverse and interdisciplinary research in future caring science, especially towards a care focus that is more person-centred. The adding of a historical approach by professional historians to the theory of person-centredness and person-centred care can develop knowledge that enables a more holistic understanding of the patient and the development of the patient perspective from the past until today. Thus, the aim was to show how developments within historical methodology can help us to understand elements of care in the past to further develop caring science in future. Historical research methodologies have advocated a "history from below" perspective, and this has enabled the evolution of systematic approaches to historical research that can be explored and critically analysed. Linked with this, the development of a more social and cultural oriented understanding of historical research has enabled historians to explore and add knowledge from a broader societal perspective. By focusing on the life of ordinary people and taking social and cultural aspects into account when trying to reconstruct the past, we can get a deeper understanding of health, care and medical development. However, an interdisciplinary research focus on person-centredness and person-centred care that includes professional historians can be challenging. In this paper, we argue that a historical perspective is necessary to meet the challenges we face in future delivery of health care to all people, in all parts of society in an ever more global world.

Working in a storied way-Narrative-based approaches to person-centred care and practice development in older adult residential care settings.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of the implementation of a methodological framework for a narrative-based approach to practice development and person-centred care in residential aged care settings. BACKGROUND: Care in long-term residential settings for older people is moving away from the biomedical approach and adopting a more person-centred one. Narrative can help shape the way care is planned and organised. The provision of person-centred care that is holistic and that takes account of resident's beliefs and values can be enhanced by incorporating narrative approaches to care within a practice development framework. DESIGN: The chosen methodology was participatory action research. METHODS: Between 2010-2014, a methodological framework of narrative practice was implemented in two residential care settings, comprising 37 residents and 38 staff, using an action research approach. Three action cycles: (i) narrative practice and culture identification, (ii) developing narrative practice and (iii) working in a storied way emerged during the implementation. RESULTS: Key outcomes emerged in relation to the findings. These were based on narrative being, knowing and doing and centred around the key outcomes of (i) how people responded to change (narrative being), (ii) the development of shared understandings (narrative knowing) and (iii) intentional action (narrative doing). CONCLUSION: The implementation of a framework of narrative practice demonstrated that how people respond to change, the development of shared understandings and intentional action were interrelated and interlinked. It illustrated the importance of ensuring that practice context is taken account of in the implementation of action research and the importance of ensuring that narrative being, knowing and doing are clear and understandable for change to occur. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Implementation of a narrative approach to care can develop new ways of working that value biography and promote the development of a co-constructed plan of care.

A Kaleidoscope of Hope: Exploring Experiences of Hope Among Service Users and Informal Carers in Health Care Contexts.

BACKGROUND: There is a large and diverse literature on the concept of hope in health care. This literature covers a broad spectrum of perspectives, from philosophical, conceptual, and theoretical analysis through to attempts at measuring the concept of hope with differing health care users. AIMS: To explore the concept of hope through the secondary analysis of existing data sets, with the intention of understanding hope in the context of person-centeredness. RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the experience of hope among service users and informal carers in different health care contexts? METHOD: Secondary analysis of data derived from three research studies. FINDINGS: We identified four key themes that together illustrate what we describe as a kaleidoscope of hope, reinforcing the view that there is no one presentation of hope and that practitioners must engage authentically with service users to determine the most effective and appropriate intervention strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Hope is not a singular phenomenon, and in the context of person-centered practice there is a need for practitioners to engage authentically with service users and listen carefully to what may bring hope for them.

Exploring psychological safety as a component of facilitation within the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore holistic facilitation as an approach to enable the healthcare team to critically analyse practice and enhance patient care. BACKGROUND: Globally, the challenge of changing healthcare practices for enhanced patient care is the focus of much attention. Facilitation is emerging as an important approach to assist healthcare teams to explore and improve their practice. Within the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework, which has been tested in an international arena, facilitation is a key element of operationalising collaborative changes in practice. This study uses the framework to explore holistic facilitation and the concept of psychological safety. DESIGN: An Emancipatory Action Research approach was used. METHODS: Facilitated critical reflection was undertaken with the healthcare team working in an abdominal surgical unit. In addition, the lead researcher maintained a reflexive journal. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Eighty-five per cent (n = 48) of nursing staff and individual participants from other parts of the healthcare team (n = 3) participated in the two-year study. RESULTS: Data revealed 14 sub-themes that impacted upon the culture of the unit. These were as follows: support, leadership, oppressed behaviours, communication, interruptions, power imbalance, horizontal violence, threat, autonomy, distorted perceptions, vulnerability, value, trust and time. Psychological safety, leadership and oppressed behaviours emerged as three key themes in the practice context. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to create psychologically safe spaces in environments where insufficient support, weak leadership and oppressed behaviours are apparent. Psychological safety enables individuals to feel safe to engage in difficult conversations and consider changes to practice. In a theoretical contribution to the area of facilitation, it is proposed that the additional element of psychological safety needs to be incorporated into facilitation models, in particular, the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework, to more accurately reflect the complexities of working with healthcare teams. RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE: The pressure on healthcare environments continues to increase. To achieve the necessary skills to lead and develop services requires more than simply highlighting what is wrong with practice. Creating psychologically safe spaces, using holistic facilitation, is essential to enabling healthcare teams to critically analyse practice and enhance patient care.

Person-Centredness and Fundamentals of Care - Dancing with Beauty Rather than Fighting Ugliness.

The fundamentals of care have re-emerged as an important consideration in nursing following a period when these role elements were predominantly "delegated tasks" delivered by other (usually unregistered/unregulated) members of the health and social care team. Contemporary critiques of nursing highlight the technical focus of nursing at the expense of its caring function. Person-centred nursing theory offers a way of reinstating the value of fundamental care as a core part of providing holistic nursing to persons as well as highlighting the importance of the nursing role in coordinating healthcare services in ways that are consistent with a person's beliefs and values. This paper argues that a focus on person-centredness enables the core function of nurses as providers and coordinators of holistic person-centred fundamental care to be revalued. It highlights the importance of nurses being clear about "what matters" in caring practices and suggests that nurses adopting a person-centred approach can achieve effective care coordination through the lens of the fundamentals of care. In reading this paper, a greater understanding of person-centredness in the context of the fundamentals of care can be achieved.

Exploring nursing expertise in residential care for older people: a mixed method study.

AIMS: To explore the expertise of Registered Nurses in residential care for older people. BACKGROUND: As older people in residential care have many complex dependencies, nursing expertise is an essential component of care excellence. However, the work of these nurses can be invisible and, therefore, unrecognized. Thus, additional attention is required to illuminate such nursing expertise. DESIGN: A mixed method design was used in this study. METHODS: The research took place in 2012 in the Republic of Ireland. Twenty-three case study nurses were recruited from nursing homes. Each case study nurse involved five data collection methods: shadowing, interview with a colleague, interview with a resident, a demographic profile and a director of nursing survey. The study was also informed by a modified focus group. Qualitative data were analysed using directed content analysis using a conceptual framework generated from the literature on nursing expertise. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS and presented in descriptive statistics. FINDINGS: The findings from the case studies and the modified focus group are presented in seven themes, which represent nursing expertise in residential care of older people: transitions, context of the nursing home, saliency, holistic practice knowledge, knowing the resident, moral agency and skilled know how. CONCLUSION: Nursing expertise in residential care of older people is a complex phenomenon which encompasses many aspects of care delivery in a person-centred framework. By rendering this expertise visible, the need for appropriate and adequate skill mix for a growing residential care population is presented.

Therapeutic use of dolls for people living with dementia: A critical review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: There are a number of therapies currently available to assist healthcare professionals and carers with non-pharmacological treatment for people living with dementia. One such therapy that has been growing in clinical practice is doll therapy. Providing dolls to some people living with dementia has the potential to enhance personal well-being through increased levels of communication and engagement with others. Despite its potential for benefits, the practice is currently under-developed in healthcare literature, probably due to varied ethical interpretations of its practice. AIM: To undertake a critical review of the published literature on doll therapy, using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Checklist (CASP) tool, in order to determine the potential benefits and challenges of this therapy for people living with dementia. DESIGN: A comprehensive literature search, incorporating the CINAHL, Medline, Embase, PubMed, Joanna Briggs, Cochrane Library and PsycINFO data bases, was conducted. CONCLUSIONS: Despite many commentaries and anecdotal accounts of the practice, this review identified only 11 empirical studies that were eligible. The majority of studies found that the use of dolls could be therapeutic for some people living with dementia by reporting increased levels of engagement, communication and reduction in episodes of distress. Some studies identified limitations to the therapy including; confusion over the ownership of the doll and healthcare professional uncertainty about issues pertaining to autonomy. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: According to this review, doll therapy has the potential to increase the well-being of some people living with dementia. This review illuminates that some healthcare professionals feel uncomfortable about its use in clinical practice. The operationalisation of doll therapy in clinical practice has been shown to be inconsistent with different approaches to the practice being advocated. This highlights the need for further empirical research to identify best practice and education to increase awareness in both healthcare professional and carer populations.

Determining factors that have an impact upon effective evidence-based pain management with older people, following colorectal surgery: an ethnographic study.

AIM: The aim of this project was to examine pain management practices with older people admitted to the colorectal unit of an acute hospital trust. BACKGROUND: Although pain assessment and management are judged to be a priority, little research has examined the care older people receive in the acute surgical setting. Thus, pain in older people (65 years and over) can be under recognized and unrelieved. With the number of older people requiring surgery increasing, it is important to identify factors in the practice context that enhance or inhibit effective pain management. DESIGN: The project drew upon an in-depth ethnographic approach. METHOD: Sixty-two hours of around the clock, non-participant observation of nursing practice was completed. Thirty-nine (78%) nurses and forty-six (42%) patients were observed. Seven (6%) additional patients participated in pre- and postoperative interviews and 35 (90%) nurses completed the Nursing Work Index--Revised Questionnaire. FINDINGS: Holistic pain assessment for older people was found to be deficient in the acute surgical setting. Nurses appeared unaware of the importance of addressing the particular pain needs of older patients. Inflexible analgesic prescriptions provided the mainstay treatment of pain, with minimal consideration given to non-pharmacological strategies. Older people wanted to be active participants in their care. However, existing pain management practices disempowered older patients, making them reluctant or unable to discuss their pain with ward staff. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive pain assessment, improved documentation and proficient communication, inclusive of older patients, are necessary to improve pain management practices. It is imperative that patients, nurses, doctors and Acute Pain Service work in collaboration to challenge pain management practices and implement change. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The project demonstrated some of the multiple and complex factors that affect the older persons' pain experience and identified three action research cycles for further development work.

Re-defining nursing expertise in the United kingdom.

There is now international recognition of the importance of practice expertise in modern and effective health services. The Expertise in Practice Project in the United Kingdom began in May 1998 and continued to 2004. It included nurses working in all four countries of the United Kingdom, and it covered clinical specialists from pediatrics to palliative care. The project added to the current understanding of what nursing practice expertise is, through the identification and verification of attributes and factors which enable expert practice. The proposed framework offers a language for sharing what constitutes practice expertise and offers insight into what occurs between the expert practitioner and the people that experience their care. The Expertise in Practice Project demonstrates that nurses affect change and facilitate performance and organizational development.

Person-centredness in gerontological nursing: an overview of the literature.

Person-centred practice is a recurring theme in gerontological nursing literature. While there are many descriptive accounts of attempts at developing person-centred practice, in reality, there are few studies that identify the benefits of this way of working. Thus far, systematic research into person-centred nursing practice is poorly developed. This paper aims to explore the concept of person-centredness and person-centred practice in order to add clarity to discussions about the term in the context of gerontological nursing. This literature-based exploration discusses the meaning of the word 'person' and the way this word is translated into person-centred practice. It is argued that there are four concepts underpinning person-centred nursing: (i). being in relation; (ii). being in a social world; (iii). being in place and (iv). being with self. The articulation of these concepts through existing models of person-centred practice in nursing raises the recurring themes of knowing the person, the centrality of values, biography, relationships, seeing beyond the immediate needs and authenticity. There is a need for further research and development work in gerontological nursing to distinguish between person-centred practice and good quality care for older people.

Getting evidence into practice: the role and function of facilitation.

AIM OF PAPER: This paper presents the findings of a concept analysis of facilitation in relation to successful implementation of evidence into practice. BACKGROUND: In 1998, we presented a conceptual framework that represented the interplay and interdependence of the many factors influencing the uptake of evidence into practice. One of the three elements of the framework was facilitation, alongside the nature of evidence and context. It was proposed that facilitators had a key role in helping individuals and teams understand what they needed to change and how they needed to change it. As part of the on-going development and refinement of the framework, the elements within it have undergone a concept analysis in order to provide theoretical and conceptual clarity. METHODS: The concept analysis approach was used as a framework to review critically the research literature and seminal texts in order to establish the conceptual clarity and maturity of facilitation in relation to its role in the implementation of evidence-based practice. FINDINGS: The concept of facilitation is partially developed and in need of delineation and comparison. Here, the purpose, role and skills and attributes of facilitators are explored in order to try and make distinctions between this role and other change agent roles such as educational outreach workers, academic detailers and opinion leaders. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that facilitation can be represented as a set of continua, with the purpose of facilitation ranging from a discrete task-focused activity to a more holistic process of enabling individuals, teams and organizations to change. A number of defining characteristics of facilitation are proposed. However, further research to clarify and evaluate different models of facilitation is required.