[Invasive procedures and complications in patients with craniocerebral trauma hospitalized in an intensive therapy unit]. / Procedimentos invasivos e complicações em pacientes com traumatismo crâneo-encefálico internados em unidade de terapia intensiva.

The present study realized with 50 patients from an Intensive Care Unit, due to head injury and considering that the majority of them presented a score equal or below six (6) in the Glasgow Coma Scale, has shown that the utilization of invasive procedures is high. Regarding complications, there was predominance of fever, upper airway secretions, hematomas at the arterial puncture localization and diarrhea. Proportionally, the patients under a clinical treatment presented a lower number of invasive procedures and problems and the reverse occurred with those under surgery. The analysis of the association of the invasive procedures and problems compared to the level of consciousness has been affected.

The recognition and non-recognition of problem-solving stages in nursing practice.

A requirement for high-quality individualized nursing care is that nurses must recognize and attempt to solve patients' health problems. In this study, it was decided to investigate problem solving using a model similar to the nursing process derived from the general literature. Insight into nurses' perceptions and understanding of problem solving was gained by interviewing 116 nurses using vignettes of clinical problem solving. Data analysis revealed that many informants failed to discuss some problem-solving stages, in particular planning and evaluation. Conversely, problem assessment and implementation attracted more comment. The implications for these variations in nurses' problem-solving behaviour are examined in relation to contemporary nursing issues.

[The nursing care of patients with a behavioral manifestation arising from a withdrawal from reality]. / Assistência de enfermagem a pacientes com manifestação de comportamento decorrente de alheamento da realidade.

With this study the authors want to furnish the nurses with one more reference source to guide their actions in caring for the patient with manifestation of reality withdrawal. Some concepts of withdrawal are presented and, summarily, the clinical manifestation. Nursing care is described considering their problems and general measures to be taken into account for patients individuality.

Nursing's role in health promotion. An overview.

This article presents health promotion as a basic concept for nursing practice. Since the era of Nightingale, health promotion has continued to be a major focus for nursing as is reflected in the American Nurses' Association (ANA) Social Policy Statement. The major focus of this article is nursing's role in health promotion in such areas as assessment, advocacy, case management, promotion of self-care, and client education. Major societal changes that are expected to have an impact on health promotion in the near future are also presented.

Strategies for promoting health protection.

There is a need for nurses to be involved in testing and refinement of conceptual models for health protection. Development and testing of strategies should occur in all age groups and in a variety of cultural and socioeconomic groups in public and private settings. These strategies need to be evaluated and published.

A descriptive analysis of experienced nurses' clinical reasoning during a planning task.

A Think Aloud (TA) method was employed to collect verbal data from seven clinical nurses as they reviewed a written case study and formulated a plan of care. Protocol Analysis (PA) of the verbal data resulted in a visual representation of each subject's plan of care and provided information regarding the clinical data that subjects used to plan care. The results demonstrated that frequently problems and interventions were inextricably linked and considered in unison rather than during separate steps of a planning process. This finding has implications relative to the current practice within both nursing education and nursing service of focusing on problems and interventions separately when planning care.

The development of a classification system for nurses' work methods.

This study describes the development of a classification system for the clarification, understanding and measurement of nurses' work methods. The theoretical basis of the classification system is described. The system offered distinguishes between three common work methods: primary, team and task nursing; the strength of opportunity for nurse-patient interaction in each method being determined as either 'strong', 'moderate' or 'weak', according to how effectively they are practised. Preliminary testing of the system on 32 wards in 13 hospitals is described. It is concluded that further testing and possible refinement is required for validation of the system.

A nursing process methodology.

A nursing methodology developed by the faculty at The Ohio State University teaches nursing students problem-solving techniques applicable to any nursing situation. It also provides faculty and students with a basis for measuring students progress and ability in applying the nursing process.

[Nursing diagnosis: as a part of the nursing care process]. / Diagnóstico de enfermería: como parte del proceso de atención de enfermería.

This paper introduces some current criteria on Webster's (1974) Nursing Diagnosis (Dx) and that of Waechter-Blake which describe what the process of identifying the particular problems and needs of the patient are and assess the resources for helping decision-making. The differences between Medical Dx and Nursing Dx as different and at the same time similar elements that overlap and supplement each other are established. The usefulness of nursing diagnosis is pointed out since it identifies the needs and problems, achieves a shortened connection of information, as a future basis for research. The paper shows the process by which the nursing diagnosis is made, lists the nurse's skill when making the Nursing Dx and finally describes the difficulties in formulating the Nursing Dx.