Nurses' perceptions of patient involvement in shared decision-making in cardiovascular care.

It is important for nurses to involve patients in their own care to enable shared decision-making. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of nurses regarding the degree to which involvement in shared decision-making takes place in clinical settings during consultations. Previous studies have shown that the use of shared decision-making by healthcare professionals can improve their caring practices and the quality of life of their patients. However, studies have also shown little evidence of the existence of shared decision-making in clinical practice. One step forward can be to clarify nurses' perceptions of patient involvement in shared decision-making. Qualitative data were collected from 10 nurses at four Swedish hospitals using a semi-structured, open-ended interview guide. The data were analyzed using inductive latent content analysis. The results showed that the care practices described by the nurses in the study are clearly different from the healthcare policy and scientific vision of shared decision-making. The nurses in the study believe that, with some exceptions, both healthcare professionals and patients prefer to leave decision-making to medical experts. In order to take advantage of the existing potential for improvement of shared decision-making in cardiologic care, healthcare professionals must be given time to seriously listen to and develop an interest in their patients' lifeworlds. Furthermore, the implementation of shared decision-making requires a mutual initiative and development of knowledge about the decision-making process from healthcare professionals and patients.

Patient Centeredness from a Perspective of History of the Present: A Genealogical Analysis.

The overall aim of this study, performed in Sweden, was to problematize the contemporary national and transnational discourse on patient centeredness, which during recent decades has become a given, having become established as a dogma in conversations, writing, and thinking about patients and health care. We did that by showing that ideas such as patient centeredness can be seen differently from the way they are depicted in contemporary discourses about health care. In the presented analysis, we drew on Foucault's concepts of governmentality, 'history of the present' and genealogy. This means that we reflected on contemporary conceptions of how phenomena, such as the care seeker, have been constructed within other discourses about health care. Empirically, we used different health policy documents-government reports from three different historical periods. The analysis showed that contemporary narratives about centeredness are neither more, nor less, care seeker-centered than the narratives of yesteryear. Rather, the phenomenon of the care seeker is given different frames and meanings within the framework of different economic and historical discourses about health care. Our analysis raised questions about the contemporary construction of patient centeredness. In a world with such huge economic differences between nations, as well as between citizens within most nations, the contemporary discourse may be limited as it does not problematize structural issues in the same way as previous discourses had done. Perhaps what is needed today are national and international patient-centered or person-centered discourses which also discuss policies and practices that are population- and social group-centered. In the final discussion of the analysis, we identified a new patient-centered discourse, which views the patient as a resource among other resources. The most important limitation of this type of study is that it is only about discourses and policy issues and not about daily practical activities.

Communication patterns in nurse-led chemotherapy clinics: A mixed-method study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine patterns of nurse-patient communication in fulfilling patients' informational/psychosocial needs, effects of longer consultation/operational aspects on person-centred care experiences. METHODS: Mixed-method design; secondary analysis of transcripts of nurse-patient communication within nurse-led chemotherapy clinics in UK [3]. Purposive sampling (13 nurses); non-participant observations (61 consultations). Qualitative content analysis of audio-recorded transcripts. Quantitative analysis using the Medical Interview Aural Rating Scale [14] to compare mean differences in the number of cues and level of responding using one-way ANOVA, and correlational analyses of discursive spaces. RESULTS: Nurses responded positively to informational cues, but not psychosocial cues. Longer consultations associated with more informational and psychosocial cues (p <  .0001), but not nurses' cue-responding behaviours. Four main themes emerged: challenges/opportunities for person-centred communication in biomedical contexts; patients' "life world" versus the "medical world"; three-way communication: nurse, patient and family; implications of continuity of care. CONCLUSIONS: The challenges/opportunities for cue-responding in nurse-led chemotherapy clinics were evident for informational and psychosocial support of patients. Shifting from a biomedical to biopsychosocial focus is difficult. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Further evaluation is needed to integrate biopsychosocial elements into communication education/training. Careful planning is required to ensure continuity and effective use of time for person-centred care.

The Discharge Process-From a Patient's Perspective.

Inadequacy in discharge planning, preparation of readiness, and unplanned readmissions are closely linked and could cause misutilization of hospital services, creating higher costs to the health-care system. The information given before discharge is vital and of great importance for the well-being of the patient. The study's objective was to describe the patient's experience of their discharge process. A descriptive study was designed. Fifteen (n = 15) interviews with patients at one University Swedish hospital were held, and a qualitative content analysis was made from the collected data. The results show that accessibility, information, communication, confidence, and participation are pivotal in future development in the discharge process. The findings of this study indicate that in affirmation with the patient's experiences and desires, there is a great urgency for improvement in the discharge process. There is a need to focus on information and communication at discharge by initiating interaction from the nurses together with the doctors at a specific time in the discharge process. The discharge process needs to be more individualized and person-centered which could lead to better patient governance. Both accessibility and continuity need to be improved. The information given needs to be met with the patient's level of understanding.

Communicative constructions of person-centred and non-person-centred caring in nurse-led consultations.

PURPOSE: Nursing is theorised to be a component of person-centred care. Communicative constructions of person-centred caring are a topic that needs to be studied in consultations. The study aimed to explore how person-centred caring and non-person- centred caring are verbally constructed in consultations between patients and nurse. METHOD: This study was qualitative using audio-recorded observations from consultations with advanced nurse practitioners in nurse-led chemotherapy clinics from four hospitals in the UK through purposive sampling. Discourse analysis was used to identify communicative patterns in 45 non-participant observations of nurse consultations. RESULTS: The dominant discourse was a non-person-centred oriented discourse framed by the biomedical model. It was also possible to identify fragments of an alternative discourse-a person-oriented discourse localising health problems within the patient's personal and sociocultural context. CONCLUSIONS: The prominent use of a non-person-oriented discourse focusing on the medical/technical aspects of a patient's assessment/evaluation in consultations may make it difficult for patients to raise questions and concerns from their daily lives during consultations. However, fragments of a person-oriented discourse show that it is possible for nurses to allow a person-centred approach to the consultation. The pedagogical implications have to do with raising nurses' awareness of the role of evaluative language in enhancing person-centred communication with patients in clinical interactions.

Patient involvement in consultation for atrial fibrillation - the cardiologists' perspective.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the accounts of Swedish cardiologists concerning patient involvement in consultations for atrial fibrillation (AF). The questions were: how cardiologists handle and provide scope for patient involvement in medical consultations regarding AF treatment and how cardiologists describe their familiarity with shared decision-making. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A descriptive study was designed. Ten interviews with cardiologists at four Swedish hospitals were held, and a qualitative content analysis was performed on the collected data. FINDINGS: The analysis shows cardiologists' accounts of persuasive practice, protective practice, professional role and medical craftsmanship when it comes to patient involvement and shared decision-making. The term "shared decision-making" implies a concept of not only making one decision but also ensuring that it is finalised with a satisfactory agreement between both parties involved, the patient as well as the cardiologist. In order for the idea of patient involvement to be fulfilled, the two parties involved must have equal power, which can never actually be guaranteed. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Methodologically, this paper reflects the special contribution that can be made by the research design of descriptive qualitative content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004) to reveal and understand cardiologists' perspectives on patient involvement and participation in medical consultation and shared decision-making. The utility of this kind of analysis is to find what cardiologists said and how they arrived at their understanding about patient involvement. Accordingly, there is no quantification in this type of research. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Cardiologists should prioritise patient involvement and participation in decision-making regarding AF treatment decisions in consultations when trying to meet the request of patient involvement. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Theoretically, the authors have learned that the patient involvement and shared decision-making requires the ability to see patients as active participants in the medical consultation process.

Cardiologists' experiences and perceptions of patient involvement and communication related to shared decision-making regarding atrial fibrillation treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To feel involved in decisions about atrial fibrillation (AF) treatment, patients need supportive communication from cardiologists. Shedding light on cardiologists' perceptions of patient involvement in AF care settings is thus of importance. We examine (1) how cardiologists describe patient involvement and communication related to shared decisionmaking regarding AF treatment, and (2) their perceptions of efforts to involve patients in the treatment decisions. METHODS: Ten cardiologists were interviewed in four Swedish hospitals. A qualitative content analysis was performed on the interview data. RESULTS: Cardiologists' perceptions of patient involvement in treatment decisions are framed in terms of (1) ideology, (2) experience, and (3) responsibility. CONCLUSION: By taking into account patients' feelings in the consultations, and by actively encouraging patients to be involved, the cardiologists contributed to patient involvement. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: One key to improving compliance with legislation aimed at increasing patient involvement in treatment decisions could lie in paying attention to physician-patient communication and the conditions for patient involvement in decision-making about treatment.

Parents' Experiences of Caring Responsibility for Their Adult Child with Schizophrenia.

As a consequence of the latest psychiatry-related reform in Sweden and its implementation, relatives and family members have taken over from the formal healthcare system significant responsibility for the care of persons with a mental disability and illness. The aim of this study was to systematically describe and analyze the experiences of parents' informal care responsibility. The questions were, what are the experiences around parents' informal care activities and responsibilities and how do parents construct and manage their caring responsibility and with what consequences? Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted (16 hours of recorded material) with eight parents who were all members of the Interest Association for Schizophrenia (Intresseföreningen för Schizofreni (IFS)) in Sweden. A mixed hermeneutic deductive and inductive method was used for the interpretation of the material. The parents endow their informal caring responsibility with meaning of being a good, responsible, and accountable parent with respect to their social context and social relationships as well as with respect to the psychiatric care representatives. In this tense situation, parents compromise between elements of struggle, cooperation, avoidance, and adaption in their interaction with the world outside, meaning the world beyond the care provision for their child, as well as with the world inside themselves.

Patients' experiences of communication and involvement in decision-making about atrial fibrillation treatment in consultations with nurses and physicians.

BACKGROUND: Insights in consultations across patient interactions with physicians and nurses are of vital importance for strengthening the patients' involvement in the treatment decision-making process. The experience of involvement and communication in decision-making from the patients' perspective has been sparsely explored. OBJECTIVE: To examine how patients describe involvement in and communication about decision-making regarding treatment in consultations with nurses and physicians. METHOD: Twenty-two patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), aged 37-90 years, were interviewed directly after their consultations with nurses and physicians in outpatient AF clinics in six Swedish hospitals. RESULTS: In consultations with nurses, the patients felt involved when obtaining clarifications about AF as a disease and its treatment and when preparing for and building up confidence in decision-making. In consultations with physicians, the patients felt involved when they could cooperate in decision-making, when acquiring knowledge, and when they felt that they were being understood. One shared category was found in consultations with both nurses and physicians, and the patients felt involved when they had a sense of trust and felt secure during and between consultations. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with AF stated that they would need to acquire knowledge and build up confidence and ability in order to be effectively involved in the decision-making about treatment. Despite not being actively involved in decision-making, patients felt involved through experiencing supportive and confirming communication. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Attention must be given to the relationship with the patient to create the conditions for patient involvement in the consultation. This can be achieved through supportive communication attempting to create a feeling of clarity and building confidence. This will support involvement in decision-making concerning AF treatment and feelings of being understood and of trust in physicians and/or nurses.

Gendered communicative construction of patients in consultation settings.

This study aimed to explore the communication in consultations between patients and health care staff from a gender perspective. We used 23 tape-recorded consultations between patients with Atrial Fibrillation and 5 nurses and 5 physicians at cardiac outpatient clinics at 6 different hospitals in southern Sweden during autumn 2009 to explore the verbal gendered constructions of patients. Through critical discourse analysis, we revealed that the male patients tended to describe their ailments with performance-oriented statements, whereas the female patients usually used emotional-oriented statements. The staff downplayed the male patients' questions and statements, while they acknowledged concern toward the female patients. Both the patients and the staff made conclusions according to a mutual construction. Male patients were constructed as competent, and female patients as fragile through gender-stereotypical communication. Open-ended statements and questions enabled consultations to be less limited by gender stereotypes.

Content and distribution of discursive space in consultations between patients with atrial fibrillation and healthcare professionals.

AIM: To describe (i) the topics participants talk about, (ii) the use of discursive space in consultations between patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and their nurses and physicians, and (iii) the frequencies of the ways the patients, nurses and physicians introduce the topics. METHODS: Data were collected from 23 videotaped consultations concerning patients with AF as well as physicians and nurses, respectively. To obtain a description of topics discussed, the transcripts were analysed using content analysis. The patterns of dominance for the respective topic and participant were explored from the framework of analysis that treats dominance. RESULTS: Four topics were used by both nurses and physicians in the consultations. These were 'pathophysiology', 'diagnostic procedures', 'treatment' and 'activity'. In the nurse-patient consultation an additional topic, 'routines related to the physician's responsibilities', emerged. With respect to the number of words and turns, the distribution of the discourse space was almost equal between the nurses and patients and unequal between the physicians and patients. The healthcare professionals initiated the topics more frequently compared to the patients, whereby the medical approach recommended in the guidelines for AF could be recognized. The patients were the dominating initiators in the topic 'activity', which refers to the adaptation of activities in daily life in relation to the AF. CONCLUSIONS: The medical-driven agenda dominates over the patient-driven agenda in consultations between healthcare professional and patients with AF. The patients initiated the conversations when discussing living with AF and were more talkative during conversations in nurse consultations.