Perceptions of the scope of practice of nurse practitioners caring for older adults: level of agreement among different healthcare providers.

BACKGROUND: Globally, new nurse practitioner roles have been introduced into interdisciplinary teams. Research indicates that agreement among the different healthcare providers regarding one another's role and scope of practice is important for establishing interdisciplinary teamwork. Lack of agreement regarding a new nurse practitioner's scope of practice may hinder collaboration. AIM: To investigate the level of agreement among advanced geriatric nurses (AGNs), their colleagues and their leaders regarding which activities related to direct and indirect care, teaching/supervision, coordination and research and development work are perceived as appropriate for AGNs. DESIGN: A cross-sectional descriptive survey. METHODS: The total population of AGNs in Norway (n = 26) and a sample of their colleagues, including leaders (n = 465), were invited to answer an online questionnaire. Twenty-three (88.5%) AGNs and 195 (42%) colleagues answered the questionnaires. A series of cross-tabulations were conducted to identify the respondents reporting on the appropriateness of different activities. RESULTS: The respondents identified all of the activities related to coordination, teaching/supervision and research and development work as appropriate for AGNs. Although the respondents considered several of the direct and indirect care activities as appropriate, there were conflicting views on the activities that traditionally fall within the medical field vs. those that traditionally fall within the nursing field. The AGNs saw most of the nursing and medical activities as appropriate, but their colleagues and leaders saw only some of the nursing activities as appropriate. The results also showed that there was high disagreement among the leaders regarding appropriate activities. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that healthcare providers agree on which activities related to teaching/supervision, coordination, and research and development work are appropriate to include in AGNs' scope of practice, but that there are conflicting views regarding activities related to direct and indirect care.

Users' and researchers' construction of equity in research collaboration.

BACKGROUND: Equity is described as an ideal in user involvement in research and is mentioned in the health service literature and in several guidelines. However, equity is described as being difficult to obtain and the concept is rarely clarified or concretized. Equity can be socially constructed. OBJECTIVE: This study explored users' and researchers' constructions of equity in research processes. DESIGN AND METHOD: The study had a qualitative research design. Constructions of equity were analysed through the lens of positioning theory. Two focus group interviews consisting of both users and researchers were conducted. FINDINGS: The thirteen users and four researchers considered 'equity' as an important part of user involvement in research. Storylines about norms, responsibility, language, knowledge and usefulness evolved in the discussions. These storylines elucidated unequal access to rights and duties. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Users and researchers constructed equity in user involvement differently, but the difference was masked by an apparent agreement. Users and researchers drew on different storylines. The researchers emphasized the scientific discourse and although users acknowledged this discourse, they attempted to oppose this dominant discourse by drawing on a lay discourse. The identified constructions and negotiations of equity may contribute in new understandings of an equal collaboration in user involvement in research.

Coming from two different worlds-A qualitative, exploratory study of the collaboration between patient representatives and researchers.

BACKGROUND: Interest in user involvement in research has increased and user involvement is increasingly seen as a prerequisite. Still, challenges in the collaboration process have been documented from both researchers' and users' perspective. OBJECTIVE: By bringing together researchers and patient representatives, this study explores and describes both parties' experiences with user involvement in research as they appear through interactions in a focus group. DESIGN: We apply a qualitative design using positioning theory as a theoretical framework. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Researchers and patient representatives were mixed within 2 focus groups. Positioning theory was used to guide the analysis. FINDINGS: The discussion evolved around knowledge, equity and partnership, all related to power through constant negotiations of positions. Researchers and users ascribed various positions while discussing these topics. Various positions are seen as the result of different rights and duties in the research process. Power differences in the form of different rights and duties stand out as barriers. Being positioned as a partner was an important aspect for users in our study. Researchers assumed passive positions within the focus group, whereas users assumed active positions by expressing their wishes and needs. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that positions relating to status and knowledge in the involvement process are important. The findings suggest that the positions that users and researchers assume and ascribe throughout the process are constantly changing; however, the researchers tend to have more power. More studies are needed to understand how equity is perceived in user involvement in health research.

Moving between ideologies in self-management support-A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Reforms in current health policy explicitly endorse health promotion through group-based self-management support for people with long-term conditions. Health promotion and traditional medicine are based on different logics. Accordingly, health professionals in health-promoting settings demand the adoption of new practices and ways of thinking. OBJECTIVES: The objective of our study was to investigate how health professionals perceive the health-promoting group-based self-management support that is politically initiated for people with long-term conditions. DESIGN: This study had a qualitative research design that included focus group interviews and was guided by a social constructivist paradigm in which group-based self-management was viewed as a social construction. Different logics at play were analysed through the theoretical lens of institutional logic. Discussions among participants show frames of references seen as logics. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We recruited health professionals from group-based health-promoting measures for people with type 2 diabetes in Norway. Two focus groups comprising four and six participants each were invited to discuss the practices and value of health promotion through group-based self-management support. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in three themes of discussion among participants that contained reflections of logics in movement. Health professionals' discussions moved between different logics based on the importance of expert-based knowledge on compliance and on individual lifestyle choices. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The study indicates that health promotion through self-management support is still a field "in the making" and that professionals strive to establish new logics and practices that are not considered difficult to manage or do not contain incompatible understandings.

The integration of new nurse practitioners into care of older adults: A survey study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess Norwegian advanced geriatric nurses' (AGNs) use of their knowledge and skills, and factors that may influence AGNs' opportunities to use their knowledge and skills to reach their full potential. BACKGROUND: Despite the need for nurses with advanced knowledge and skill in the care of older adults, the introduction of new advanced nursing roles has been challenging. Countries in the process of establishing advanced roles need to monitor and identify possible implementation issues. DESIGN: A cross-sectional descriptive survey. METHODS: We invited the total population of AGNs in Norway (n = 26) and some of their colleagues (n = 465) to answer an online questionnaire. Twenty-three (88.5%) of the AGNs and 195 (42.0%) of the invited colleagues completed and submitted the questionnaires. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics. STROBE guidelines were used in reporting this study. RESULTS: Of the AGNs, 16 (69.6%) used their knowledge and skills to their full potential when providing direct care. However, a minority used their knowledge and skills to their full potential when proving indirect care (n = 11, 47.8%), teaching/supervision (n = 11, 47.8%) and coordination (n = 5, 21.8%). A total of 47 (24.1%) colleagues experienced the AGNs' scope of practice as completely clear, and 52 (26.6%) collaborated with the AGNs several times a week. Of the colleagues, 131 (67.2%) considered the AGNs' role and scope of practice contributed positively to a high degree to health service for older adults. CONCLUSION: The results indicate the need for greater focus on organisational adjustment for the AGNs to utilise their knowledge and skills to their full potential. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: There is a need for greater focus on organisational adjustment to integrate AGNs at the workplace, as complete integration may improve the AGNs' use of their knowledge and skills.

Group affiliation in self-management: support or threat to identity?

BACKGROUND: Self-management is considered important in chronic illness, and contemporary health policy recommends participation in support groups for individuals with chronic conditions. Although withdrawal from or non-participation in support groups is an important problem, there is limited knowledge about individuals' own motivation for participation in or withdrawal from self-management support groups. OBJECTIVES: To investigate how individuals with type 2 diabetes perceive participation in group-based self-management support. DESIGN: This is a qualitative focus group study using a semi-structured interview guide. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Sixteen participants diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were included in the study. Individuals with and without group affiliations were mixed in three focus groups to trigger discussions. In the analysis, reoccurring themes of engagement and discussions between participants were focused within a theoretical frame of institutional logic. The focus groups are seen as social spaces where participants construct identity. RESULTS: Both participation and non-participation in group-based self-management support are associated with dealing with the stigma of having type 2 diabetes. Negotiations contribute to constructing an illness dignity as a response to the logic of moral responsibility for the disease. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Contemporary policy contributes to societal understandings of individuals with type 2 diabetes as morally inadequate. Our study shows that group-based self-management support may counteract blame and contribute in negotiations of identity for individuals with type 2 diabetes. This mechanism makes participation in groups beneficial for some but stigma inducing for others.

Stakeholders in support systems for self-care for chronic illness: the gap between expectations and reality regarding their identity, roles and relationships.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The spread of self-care holds the promise of containing chronic illness burden. Falling within the framework of a FP7 collaborative research project, this paper reports the views of key informants from six countries regarding who the main stakeholders are at different levels in the support system for self-care for patients with chronic illness (SSSC) and how they accomplish their role and collaborate. METHODS: 90 Interviews with purposefully selected key informants from Bulgaria, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and United Kingdom were conducted. Interviews involved government and local authorities, politicians, academics, health professionals and private sector representatives. Interviewers followed an expert opinion-based guide. Analysis involved a cross-country examination with thematic analysis and framework method techniques. RESULTS: Key informants described the ideal SSSC as inclusive, interdependent and patient-centred. The following main stakeholders in SSSC were identified: patients, governments, health-care professionals, associations, private companies and the media. In the current SSSCs, collaboration among stakeholders within and across different levels was said to be lacking. Patients were seen as playing a passive subordinate role based on the following: their own attitudes; the paternalistic and medicalized attitudes of the health-care professionals; their misrepresentation by patient associations; and their exposure to the damaging influences of media and industries. CONCLUSIONS: Making SSSC patient-centred constitutes the greatest challenge for European authorities. Strategies must be revised for promoting patient participation. They should undergo changes so as to promote industry and media social responsibility and patient association advocacy capacity.

Sufficient competence in community elderly care? Results from a competence measurement of nursing staff.

BACKGROUND: Multi-morbidity, poly-pharmacy and cognitive impairment leave many old patients in a frail condition with a high risk of adverse outcomes if proper health care is not provided. Knowledge about available competence is necessary to evaluate whether we are able to offer equitable and balanced health care to older persons with acute and/or complex health care needs. This study investigates the sufficiency of nursing staff competence in Norwegian community elderly care. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1016 nursing staff in nursing homes and home care services with the instrument "Nursing Older People - Competence Evaluation Tool". Statistical analyses were ANOVA and multiple regression. RESULTS: We found that nursing staff have competence in all areas measured, but that the level of competence was insufficient in the areas nursing measures, advanced procedures, and nursing documentation. Nursing staff in nursing homes scored higher than staff in home care services, and older nursing staff scored lower than younger nursing staff. CONCLUSIONS: A reason for the relatively low influence of education and training on competence could be the diffuse roles that nursing staff have in community elderly care, implying that they have poor standards against which to judge their own competence. Clearer role descriptions for all groups of nursing staff are recommended as well as general competence development in geriatric nursing care.

Dynamics and nature of support in the personal networks of people with type 2 diabetes living in Europe: qualitative analysis of network properties.

BACKGROUND: Living with and self-managing a long-term condition implicates a diversity of networked relationships. This qualitative study examines the personal communities of support of people with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We conducted 170 biographical interviews in six European countries (Bulgaria, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and UK) to explore social support and networks. Analysis was framed with reference to three predetermined social support mechanisms: the negotiation of support enabling engagement with healthy practices, navigation to sources of support and collective efficacy. Each interview was summarized to describe navigation and negotiation of participants' networks and the degree of collective efficacy. RESULTS: Analysis highlighted the similarities and differences between countries and provided insights into capacities of networks to support self-management. The network support mechanisms were identified in all interviews, and losses and gains in networks impacted on diabetes management. There were contextual differences between countries, most notably the impact of financial austerity on network dynamics. Four types of network are suggested: generative, diverse and beneficial to individuals; proxy, network members undertook diabetes management work; avoidant, support not engaged with; and struggling, diabetes management a struggle or not prioritized. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible to differentiate types of network input to living with and managing diabetes. Recognizing the nature of active, generative aspects of networks support is likely to have relevance for self-management support interventions either through encouraging continuing development and maintenance of these contacts or intervening to address struggling networks through introducing the means to connect people to additional sources of support.

Meso level influences on long term condition self-management: stakeholder accounts of commonalities and differences across six European countries.

BACKGROUND: European countries are increasingly adopting systems of self -care support (SMS) for long term conditions which focus on enhancing individual, competencies, skills, behaviour and lifestyle changes. To date the focus of policy for engendering greater self- management in the population has been focused in the main on the actions and motivations of individuals. Less attention has been paid to how the broader influences relevant to SMS policy and practice such as those related to food production, distribution and consumption and the structural aspects and economics relating to physical exercise and governance of health care delivery systems might be implicated in the populations ability to self- manage. This study aimed to identify key informants operating with knowledge of both policy and practice related to SMS in order to explore how these influences are seen to impact on the self-management support environment for diabetes type 2. METHODS: Ninety semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholder informants in Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Norway, Netherlands and UK. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic and textual analysis. RESULTS: Stakeholders in the six countries identified a range of influences which shaped diabetes self-management (SM). The infrastructure and culture for supporting self- management practice is viewed as driven by political decision-makers, the socio-economic and policy environment, and the ethos and delivery of chronic illness management in formal health care systems. Three key themes emerged during the analysis of data. These were 1) social environmental influences on diabetes self-management 2) reluctance or inability of policy makers to regulate processes and environments related to chronic illness management 3) the focus of healthcare system governance and gaps in provision of self-management support (SMS). Nuances in the salience and content of these themes between partner countries related to the presence and articulation of dedicated prevention and self- management policies, behavioural interventions in primary care, drug company involvement and the impact of measures resulting from economic crises, and differences between countries with higher versus lower social welfare support and public spending on shaping illness management. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest reasons for giving increasing prominence to meso level influences as a means of rebalancing and improving the effectiveness of implementing an agenda for SMS. There is a need to acknowledge the greater economic and policy challenging environment operating in some countries which act as a source of inequality between countries in addressing SMS for chronic illness management and impacts on people's capacity to undertake self-care activities.

Nursing older people-competence evaluation tool: development and psychometric evaluation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To evaluate the quality of care provided to older people, the competence of the nursing staff must be measured. This study evaluates a new instrument called Nursing Older People-Competence Evaluation Tool (NOP-CET). METHODS: A 65-item questionnaire was completed by 1,016 community-based nursing staff and evaluated for validity, reliability, precision, interpretability, acceptability, and feasibility. RESULTS: The survey demonstrated good content validity; conceptually coherent factor structure explaining 54.98% (knowledge items), 65.03% (skills items), and 52.83% (personal attribute items) of the total variance; and internal consistency (.77-.93). CONCLUSIONS: The NOP-CET showed good validity and reliability as a measure of community-based nursing staff competence and may be used in further investigations of competence in older people nursing.

Social support systems as determinants of self-management and quality of life of people with diabetes across Europe: study protocol for an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Long-term conditions pose major challenges for healthcare systems. Optimizing self-management of people with long-term conditions is an important strategy to improve quality of life, health outcomes, patient experiences in healthcare, and the sustainability of healthcare systems. Much research on self-management focuses on individual competencies, while the social systems of support that facilitate self-management are underexplored. The presented study aims to explore the role of social systems of support for self-management and quality of life, focusing on the social networks of people with diabetes and community organisations that serve them. METHODS: The protocol concerns a cross-sectional study in 18 geographic areas in six European countries, involving a total of 1800 individuals with diabetes and 900 representatives of community organisations. In each country, we include a deprived rural area, a deprived urban area, and an affluent urban area. Individuals are recruited through healthcare practices in the targeted areas. A patient questionnaire comprises measures for quality of life, self-management behaviours, social network and social support, as well as individual characteristics. A community organisations' survey maps out interconnections between community and voluntary organisations that support patients with chronic illness and documents the scope of work of the different types of organisations. We first explore the structure of social networks of individuals and of community organisations. Then linkages between these social networks, self-management and quality of life will be examined, taking deprivation and other factors into account. DISCUSSION: This study will provide insight into determinants of self-management and quality of life in individuals with diabetes, focusing on the role of social networks and community organisations.

The indispensable intermediaries: a qualitative study of informal caregivers' struggle to achieve influence at and after hospital discharge.

BACKGROUND: The care policy and organization of the care sector is shifting to accommodate projected demographic changes and to ensure a sustainable model of health care provision in the future. Adult children and spouses are often the first to assume care giving responsibilities for older adults when declining function results in increased care needs. By introducing policies tailored to enabling family members to combine gainful employment with providing care for older relatives, the sustainability of the future care for older individuals in Norway is more explicitly placed on the family and informal caregivers than previously. Care recipients and informal caregivers are expected to take an active consumer role and participate in the care decision-making process. This paper aims to describe the informal caregivers' experiences of influencing decision-making at and after hospital discharge for home-bound older relatives. METHODS: This paper reports findings from a follow-up study with an exploratory qualitative design. Qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with 19 informal caregivers of older individuals discharged from hospital in Norway. An inductive thematic content analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: Informal caregivers take on comprehensive all-consuming roles as intermediaries between the care recipient and the health care services. In essence, the informal caregivers take the role of the active participant on behalf of their older relative. They describe extensive efforts struggling to establish dialogues with the "gatekeepers" of the health care services. Achieving the goal of the best possible care for the care recipient seem to depend on the informal caregivers having the resources to choose appropriate strategies for gaining influence over decisions. CONCLUSIONS: The care recipients' extensive frailty and increasing dependence on their families coupled with the complexity of health care services contribute to the perception of the informal caregivers' indispensable role as intermediaries. These findings accentuate the need to further discuss how frail older individuals and their informal caregivers can be supported and enabled to participate in decision-making regarding care arrangements that meet the care recipient's needs.

Diabetes self-management arrangements in Europe: a realist review to facilitate a project implemented in six countries.

BACKGROUND: Self-management of long term conditions can promote quality of life whilst delivering benefits to the financing of health care systems. However, rarely are the meso-level influences, likely to be of direct relevance to these desired outcomes, systematically explored. No specific international guidelines exist suggesting the features of the most appropriate structure and organisation of health care systems within which to situate self-management approaches and practices. This review aimed to identify the quantitative literature with regard to diabetes self-management arrangements currently in place within the health care systems of six countries (The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Bulgaria, and Greece) and explore how these are integrated into the broader health care and welfare systems in each country. METHODS: The methodology for a realist review was followed. Publications of interest dating from 2000 to 2013 were identified through appropriate MeSH terms by a systematic search in six bibliographic databases. A search diary was maintained and the studies were assessed for their quality and risk of bias. RESULTS: Following the multi-step search strategy, 56 studies were included in the final review (the majority from the UK) reporting design methods and findings on 21 interventions and programmes for diabetes and chronic disease self-management. Most (11/21, 52%) of the interventions were designed to fit within the context of primary care. The majority (11/21, 52%) highlighted behavioural change as an important goal. Finally, some (5/21, 24%) referred explicitly to Internet-based tools. CONCLUSIONS: This review is based on results which are derived from a total of at least 5,500 individuals residing in the six participating countries. It indicates a policy shift towards patient-centred self-management of diabetes in a primary care context. The professional role of diabetes specialist nurses, the need for multidisciplinary approaches and a focus on patient education emerge as fundamental principles in the design of relevant programmes. Socio-economic circumstances are relevant to the capacity to self-manage and suggest that any gains and progress will be hard to maintain during economic austerity. This realist review should be interpreted within the wider context of a whole systems approach regarding self-care support and chronic illness management.

Empowerment and bariatric surgery: negotiations of credibility and control.

Today obesity is understood as a chronic illness. Programs developed to deal with obesity often build on an explicit aim to "empower" patients to take increased responsibility for their health, in line with contemporary neoliberal discourses. There is little empirically based knowledge about this so-called empowering process. In this article we focus on how an empowering program for patients diagnosed as morbidly obese worked on individuals' identity. The program encompassed a course in lifestyle change, bariatric surgery, and aftercare. We conducted qualitative interviews with 9 individuals at different stages of their treatment process and applied discourse analysis to interpret their constructions and negotiations as they progressed through the program. We found that dimensions of control and credibility framed the respondents' identity work. Based on the findings we suggest that contemporary discourses of empowerment as practice might leave the participants "trapped" within the ambivalence of freedom and control.

Elders and patient participation revisited - a discourse analytic approach to older persons' reflections on patient participation.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: This study focuses on how older persons' accounts of participation might be framed and constructed based on their social and historical situatedness. BACKGROUND: The picture emerging from contemporary research tends to portray older people as a group who prefer to leave decisions to the professionals during a hospital stay. Through an approach that sought to contextualise the respondents' accounts of participation, different features of patient participation became visible. DESIGN: The study is based on a postmodern framework using a discursive approach, informed by the works of Foucault and on works that have been developed in line with his main ideas. METHOD: Eighteen individual in-depth interviews with older people (age 80+) were conducted between one to two weeks after discharge from hospital. RESULTS: Findings indicate that older people actively position themselves in relation to various discourses at play in the hospital, and display a wide variety of strategies aimed at gaining influence. To the older persons in this study, participation was practised in a subtle and discreet way, as a matter of choosing a good strategy to interact with the personnel. Participation was also seen as a matter of balancing their own needs against the needs of others and as a behaviour that required self-confidence. CONCLUSION: The accounts of patient participation given by the older persons differed from the dominant and taken-for-granted discourse of patient participation as a right. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: As the older persons' understanding and practice of patient participation do not 'fit' the contemporary idea of participation, it is in danger of being ignored or overlooked by care-givers as well as by researchers. To identify older patients' wish to participate, one must actively search for it.

Caught between conduct and free choice--a field study of an empowering programme in lifestyle change for obese patients.

The aim of this study was to investigate understandings and strategies of empowerment in Learning and Mastery Centres, in a course in lifestyle change for morbidly obese patients. A field study was conducted with nonparticipant observation, and data analysis was inspired by foucauldian discourse analysis. The analysis revealed powerful discourses underlying the course, and the analysis showed how different discourses were set at play within the teaching strategies in the course. The course leaders balanced powerful aspects that involved directing the participants towards strategies promoting their autonomy. The analysis revealed how strategies to reduce the impression of direction and conduct are powerful actions. From a foucauldian perspective of power, this analysis demonstrates how power is everywhere as a productive force. When creating programmes to empower patients to help them deal with their health, it seems vital that health professionals examine power. By accepting the presence of power, professionals can examine the truth motivation underlying an empowerment programme.

Morbidly obese patients and lifestyle change: constructing ethical selves.

Morbidly obese patients and lifestyle change: constructing ethical selves In contemporary societies, bodily size is an important part of individuals' self-representation. As the number of persons clinically diagnosed as morbidly obese increases, programmes are developed to make people reduce weight by changing their lifestyle, and for some, by bariatric surgery. This article presents findings from interviews with 12 participants undergoing a prerequisite course prior to bariatric surgery that is intended both as a preparation for further (surgical) treatment and as a tool to empower individuals regarding lifestyle changes. In this study, we investigate how power operates by looking at how the participants position themselves throughout the course. Findings reveal how participants construct their ability to act in line with norms of lifestyle change. They do this by positioning themselves as both included group members and as 'morally' acceptable individuals. Despite some resistance, the participants tend to glide into the role of 'good patients' acting in compliance with the aims of the course in their hope and striving for new positions as 'normal-sized'. The intention in the course is to empower individuals towards lifestyle changes. The findings provide a basis to question whether these kinds of courses create new forms of compliance and dependency.

Measuring the participation of elderly patients in the discharge process from hospital: a critical review of existing instruments.

Measuring patients' experiences has been a major task for health care organisations during the past decade. The discharge process is identified as a vulnerable component of health care in need of assessment, especially when it concerns elderly persons. There are no published reviews or systematic assessment of the existing instruments developed to capture patients' perspective on the discharge process. This study gives a review of existing survey instruments designed to assess patients' perspectives on the discharge process. We used systematic searches for potentially relevant instruments in MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for English language studies published between 1998 and 2009 was considered to evaluate the patients' perspective on the discharge process. Ten studies were included and assessed according to the established criteria, and the studies presented a total of 47 items related to participation. The review identified only one instrument designed specifically to capture participation in the discharge process. The main focus is on the information flow from the professional to the patient and never vice versa. Few of the instruments studied/analysed to what degree the patients were invited to share their knowledge, and none of the instruments inquired whether, in the patients' experiences, their perspective was taken into account. The major finding of the review is that none of the existing instruments capture the full range of participation, nor do they cover those areas of the discharge process identified by elderly patients themselves as the most essential.

Unfolding the invisible of the visible: gendered constructions of patient participation.

The article draws attention to the unexploited potentials in using visuals within nursing research and especially in using visuals as data. Initially, the authors give a brief description of what is meant by visual research methods and present a short overview of the different approaches that are possible. Visual methodologies are situated within different theoretical frames, often within a postmodern framework. We present a study using a postmodern approach inspired by the works of Foucault. The study demonstrates the possibilities inherent in using visuals as data by exemplifying how illustrations from health journals from Scandinavia reflect otherwise veiled and/or unconscious gendered attitudes on user participation.