Seniors' Experiences of Congregate Housing in Sweden.

A study of older people's experiences of living in congregate housing units in Sweden found three categories of adaptation to this mode of living: good adaptation (found a new home), intermediate adaptation (having no choice), and poor adaptation (remaining grief ). Support in daily care must be individual depending on the degree of adaptation.

Works of Art as a Pedagogical Tool: An Alternative Approach to Education.

Contemporary authors on nursing issues discuss the importance of expanding knowledge at all levels of nursing education to empower future nurses to respond in caring situations for the benefit of their patients. This article reviews several studies in which paintings, complemented by a pedagogical structure, allowed students to observe situations relevant to nursing. Results suggest that the use of visual art in nursing education can add a new dimension to students' experiences.

The essential dialogue: a Norwegian study of art communication in mental health care.

This study focuses on how semi-structured art dialogues can be used to communicate with older patients with impaired mental health. The study was conducted on a geropsychiatric ward at a university hospital in Norway. To communicate with the patients via works of art, health professionals used semi-structured art dialogues; data were collected by qualitative methods. The findings are based on verbatim quotations regarding the health professionals' experiences of their communication with the patients. Two main categories were identified: the physical domain and the caring domain. Dialogues about figurative as well as nonfigurative art forms were found to stimulate and evoke memories; for some patients, these dialogues were an essential step in creating well-being as well as more-being.

Health effects on leaders and co-workers of an art-based leadership development program.

BACKGROUND: There are very few evaluations of the effectiveness of leadership development programs. The purpose of the study was to examine whether an art-based leadership program may have a more beneficial effect than a conventional one on leaders' and their corresponding subordinates' mental and biological stress. METHODS: Participating leaders were randomized to 2 year-long leadership programs, 1 art-based and 1 conventional, with follow-up of the leaders and their subordinates at 12 and 18 months. The art-based program built on an experimental theatre form, a collage of literary text and music, followed by writing and discussions focused on existential and ethical problems. RESULTS: After 18 months a pattern was clearly visible with advantage for the art-based group. In the art group (leaders and their subordinates together as well as for subordinates only) compared to the conventional group, there was a significant improvement of mental health, covert coping and performance-based self-esteem as well as significantly less winter/fall deterioration in the serum concentration of the regenerative/anabolic hormone dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate a more beneficial long-term health effect of the art-based intervention compared to a conventional approach. Positive results for both standardized questionnaires and biological parameters strengthened the findings. The study provides a rationale for further evaluation of the effectiveness of this alternative educational approach.

Works of art as a pedagogical tool: an alternative approach to education.

Contemporary authors on nursing issues discuss the importance of expanding knowledge at all levels of nursing education to empower future nurses to respond in caring situations for the benefit of their patients. This article reviews several studies in which paintings, complemented by a pedagogical structure, allowed students to observe situations relevant to nursing. Results suggest that the use of visual art in nursing education can add a new dimension to students' experiences.

The dynamics of visual art dialogues: experiences to be used in hospital settings with visual art enrichment.

Objectives. Given that hospitals have environmental enrichment with paintings and visual art arrangement, it would be meaningful to develop and document how hospital art could be used by health professionals. Methods. The study was undertaken at an art site in Sweden. During 1-hour sessions, participants (n = 20) get together in an art gallery every second week five times. Results. According to the participants a new value was perceived. From qualitative analyses, three themes appear: raise association, mentally present, and door-opener. In addition 72% of the participants reported makes me happy and gives energy and inspiration, and 52% reported that dialogues increase inspiration, make you involved, and stimulate curiosity. Conclusion. The present study supported the view that visual art dialogue could be used by health care professionals in a structured manner and that meaningful art stimulation, related to a person's experiences, could be of importance for the patients. Implementing art dialogues in hospital settings could be a fruitful working tool for nurses, a complementary manner of patient communication.

Seniors' experiences of congregate housing in Sweden.

A study of older people's experiences of living in congregate housing units in Sweden found three categories of adaptation to this mode of living: good adaptation (found a new home), intermediate adaptation (having no choice), and poor adaptation (remaining grief). Support in daily care must be individual depending on the degree of adaptation.

Cultural participation and health: a randomized controlled trial among medical care staff.

OBJECTIVE: Population studies demonstrate that attending cultural events is conducive to improved health when baseline health, income, education, and health habits are taken into account. Animal experiments suggest possible mechanisms. We studied the link in humans between attending cultural events and health in a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Members of the local government officers' union in the health services in Umeå, Sweden, were invited to the experiment and 101 people registered for fine arts visits once a week for 8 weeks. They chose films, concerts, or art exhibitions visits, or singing in a choir and were then randomized into 51 cases, starting at once, and 50 controls starting after the trial. Health was assessed before randomization and after the experimental period using the instrument for perceived health, short form (SF)-36, and tests of episodic memory, saliva-cortisol and immunoglobulin. The results were analyzed using a mixed design analysis of variance. RESULTS: The SF-36 Composite Score called physical health improved in the intervention group and decreased among controls during the experiment (F(1,87) = 7.06, p = .009). The individual factor of the SF-36 called social functioning, improved more in the intervention group than among controls (F(1,98) = 8.11, p = .005) as well as the factor vitality (F(1,98) = 5.26, p = .024). The six other factors and the Mental Health Composite Score, episodic memory, cortisol and immunoglobulin levels did not change otherwise than among controls. Mechanisms are left to be identified. CONCLUSION: Fine arts stimulations improved perceived physical health, social functioning, and vitality.

Esthetic abilities: a way to describe abilities of expert nurses in palliative home care.

AIM: The aim of this paper is to focus on the abilities needed to create the caring relation in palliative home care and to find ways to describe these abilities and skills from an esthetic perspective. BACKGROUND: Nurses in Palliative home care have to create a functioning relationship between themselves the patient and the patient's next of kin, this puts special demands on the nurse. A number of abilities, such as creativity, intuition, empathy and self-knowledge are mentioned in literature related to the caring relation. Many nursing theorists have referred to the art and esthetic of nursing when trying to describe these abilities. METHODS: Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with eight expert nurses in palliative home care. The transcribed interviews were analysed using qualitative content analyses. FINDINGS: Three main categories where found: The will to do good, Knowledge and Perceptiveness. Subcategories that can be seen as abilities where found in the main categories knowledge and perceptiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The main categories can be seen as expressions for abilities, personal qualities and skills needed to create the caring relation in palliative home care. We found interesting connections between the three main categories and the concepts of esthetics, ethics and science. We also found that nurses develop in a way, i.e. similar to an artist. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The concepts brought forward in this paper could be used in clinical supervision and education as well as in clinical practice. If nurses think about the three aspects: Knowledge, the will to do good and perceptiveness, the chance for a positive relation between the nurse and the patient, and the patient's next of kin might increase. One could speculate that perceptiveness is a vital ability in order to achieve the expert level of nursing and that this perspective should be taken in consideration when recruiting nurses and in curriculum development.

Facial expressions in paintings as perceived by the student nurse.

The aim of the study was to develop an educational tool consisting of selections of paintings in order to complement theoretical knowledge regarding non-verbal communication. Another aim was to investigate students' opinions of the educational tool. A visual art programme which introduced student nurses to varying facial expressions in art reproductions was developed as a complement to textbooks on nonverbal communication. Participants were student nurses from two nursing schools in Sweden. Data were collected over a period of two years (1998-2000) in the second year of the 3-year undergraduate programme. Participants were able to infer whether a positive or negative message had been given to the depicted person. Participants' evaluations of the programme were expressed in positive terms.

Communicating via expressive arts: the natural medium of self-expression for hospitalized children.

The study was undertaken at a play therapy unit in a Swedish hospital. The purpose was directed toward investigating what takes place during play therapy when children were given the opportunity to use expressive arts such as clay, paint, and/or textile, and the meaning children input into their art objects. The study describes an approach to working with hospitalized children when they visited the play therapy unit. During a three-year period, hospitalized children (n=22) participated in the study. The assumption was that given the opportunity to express themselves freely by using a variety of expressive arts, children will tell what they express in their art works. It might mirror their thoughts and feelings of being hospitalized. The result of the qualitative analyzes generated the themes fear, longing, and powerlessness. The results also showed that expressive arts were a medium for communication. Expressive arts should be used as a tool to help the child express her/himself when being hospitalized.

Older adults and the arts: the importance of aesthetic forms of expression in later life.

The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of aesthetic forms of expression in a randomly selected Swedish population age 65 to 89. Data were based on semi-structured interviews with 166 participants. Results revealed dance, music, literature, and pictures were important for this group of elderly individuals in promoting successful aging, and the connection to their everyday life was apparent. Participants considered viewing natural scenes and looking in a photo album as important aesthetic activities. The aesthetic forms of expression contributed to physical and intellectual activities, as well as to interaction with other individuals. Aesthetic experiences were related to feelings of timelessness and spacelessness, and served as sources of gratification.

Health professionals' experience of paintings as a conversation instrument: a communication strategy at a nursing home in Sweden.

This study reported on health professionals' experiences of visual art as a conversation tool with elderly persons. Series of reproductions of paintings with varying themes such as playing children were used to bring forth a variety of topics to be discussed. The results, measured with health professionals' personal diaries, indicated positive experiences. Conversation related to paintings were regarded by health professionals as an instrument that could be used in a professional manner in nursing care for a meaningful community with the elderly person. The study presents recommendations on how health professionals could practice conversations to stimulate elderly persons to take an active part in the conversations.

A picture of a work of art as an empathy teaching strategy in nurse education complementary to theoretical knowledge.

A randomized study was performed to investigate whether a teaching intervention program using a reproduction of Edvard Munch's painting, "The Sick Girl," stimulated student nurses to engage in learning about empathy. A control group was used to control for effects of the visual art dialogues in the intervention group. The study was undertaken at a university college of health science in Sweden. Data were collected from student nurses (n = 144) during their first study year. The result showed a significant improvement in the visual art group compared with the matched control group. Students in the visual art group were more engaged in learning about empathy when measured with the Wheel Questionnaire parameters of structure, motivation, and emotional investment. The present study supported the idea that Edvard Munch's painting could be used in nurse education complementary to theoretical knowledge on empathy to stimulate student nurses to engage in empathy learning.

A memory of an aesthetic experience transferred to clinical practice.

PURPOSE: To examine the usefulness of writing about a memory of an aesthetic experience, and then transfer the aesthetic experience to a health care situation. METHODS: The study was accomplished at two university colleges of health sciences in Sweden. It started with student nurses (N=291) writing about a memory of an aesthetic experience. Then they transferred the aesthetic experience to a purposeful clinical practice. FINDINGS: The results showed that each student could report on a positive memory of an aesthetic experience. Embedded in each story was an aesthetic experience that was meaningful to the student. Domains of memory most frequently reported were music, work of art and nature. Themes derived from the aesthetic memory were happiness and awareness. The awareness theme comprized the value of aesthetic experiences for the patients, and for student nurses. CONCLUSION: The process of writing about a memory of an aesthetic experience provided an alternative model for nursing education that could improve patient care.

Intuition and visual art: student nurses' projection into experiences of elderly women.

The aim of the present study was to determine the degree to which student nurses in Sweden were able to predict responses of elderly women to 12 paintings. The result showed that the students were able to enter into situations and experiences of the elderly women. They used intuitive knowing-they were emotionally involved and used cognitive knowing during the prediction process. It could be concluded that nurse educators concerned with finding new directions to develop intuition skills might consider visual art of considerable value.

Nurses' strategies when providing for patients' aesthetic needs. Personal experiences of aesthetic means of expression.

The present study was conducted at five hospitals in Sweden. Data were collected by a random procedure from registered nurses (N = 165) in face-to-face interviews. The study reports on how and why nurses provide for patients' aesthetic needs. Open substantive coding of each interview fractured the data. The category of good for the patient was identified in the following nurses" statements: "The patient became relaxed" and "It distracted the patient from her pain." Regarding the question about how nurses provide for the patients' aesthetic needs, they did it in a nonactive manner. They used the basic service available at the wards. It could be concluded that although nurses show concern for patients' aesthetic needs, there is still more to be learned in this area of research. Nurses need to be encouraged to actively incorporate aesthetic means of expression in nursing practice.