Atypical neuroleptics: autonomy and compliance?

Non-compliance is a major stumbling block to the effectiveness of drug therapy. The nurse, both in hospital and community, has a crucial role to play in overcoming this problem to the benefit of the patient. Recent treatment advances, 'new-generation' anti-depressants and atypical neuroleptics, make this issue highly topical in mental health nursing. The atypical neuroleptics are a pharmacological breakthrough in the treatment of schizophrenia, which could herald a new era in psychiatry. These medicines give the benefits of the older (typical) neuroleptics but with fewer side-effects. Neuroleptics are sometimes called antipsychotics, antischizophrenics or major tranquillisers. Currently the atypical neuroleptics are not available in depot form. This critical review considers literature on interventions to promote compliance with neuroleptics generally and reflects on nursing implications relevant to the atypical neuroleptics. Three main forms of interventions emerge from the review; these are labelled as: imposed compliance, chosen compliance and active compliance. Historically the literature shows a gradual trend towards a realization by professionals that increased patient autonomy and involvement relates to improved compliance. This change in thinking is reflected in the new name 'adherence', which has begun to replace the term 'compliance'. It is concluded that mental health nurses have a key role to play in enabling this reconceptualization to change practice.     

Nurses' perceptions of success in self-management support: An exploratory qualitative study

Nurses play an important role in supporting patients in self-managing their chronic conditions. However, it is uncertain how nurses define their success and what might create feelings of disillusionment. This exploratory qualitative study sought to understand the origin, meanings, and processes underlying nurses' feelings of success in supporting patients to self-manage their life with a chronic illness. Semi-structured interviews were held with 16 nurses who were purposively sampled. Data were iteratively collected and analyzed (November 2017–September 2018). The origin and meaning of nurses' feelings of success in supporting patients in self-management converged around the intertwining of “maintaining and promoting health” as a primary goal in chronic care, while an “intrapersonal conflict” arises. Patients maintaining physical health by optimal medical management boost nurses' feelings of success, whereas patients dealing with sub-optimally provoke “an intrapersonal conflict”. When nurses observe unhealthy patient behavior, this is difficult to accept as it conflicts with their normative ideas of good care and health. Nurses' perception of success is refined by three interconnected processes, namely “keeping on track”, “considering own role,” and “protecting self”. Nurses experienced and processed success differently depending on whether they interacted with patients from a more directive approach or an attuning approach. This study highlighted the fact that nurses expect compliance from patients, and thereby often feel empty-handed. By adopting a broader perspective of what successful patient behavior is, nurses might be able to provide a more comprehensive meaning to their own success regarding the care of patients living with a chronic illness.     

Situated clinical reasoning: distinguishing acute confusion from dementia in hospitalized older adults

In this study a dimensional analysis approach was used to explore the clinical reasoning of nurses who care for hospitalized older adults to identify factors that might explain their failure to detect acute confusion and to distinguish it from dementia in this patient population. Data analysis yielded a grounded theory of situated clinical reasoning, which proposes that the ability of nurses to identify acute confusion varies widely. This variation can be attributed to the differences in nurses' philosophical perspectives on aging. According to this theory, three distinct perspectives are unwittingly embraced by nurses who care for older patients. These perspectives influence how nurses characterize aging and the aged and condition the ways in which they judge and ultimately deal with older adults in clinical situations.     

Use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in the critically ill – physiological principles

CPAP therapy helps improve oxygenation in patients who are awake and able to maintain a good respiratory drive. In many cases this means that intubation and ventilation can be avoided. The main goals of CPAP are to minimise alveolar collapse, improve compliance, decrease work of breathing and improve ventilation/perfusion matching. These effects work together to improve arterial oxygenation.

A clear, concise and straightforward discussion of CPAP is difficult to find in the existing literature. As CPAP has developed into a common therapy for patients with respiratory failure, it is essential that nurses using this therapy are familiar with the equipment and the physiological effects it produces. Assessment and management of the patient receiving CPAP therapy are also important.

This paper will address the physiological principles of CPAP therapy so that nurses working with critically ill patients receiving CPAP therapy understand the system and are accurate and astute in their respiratory assessment, in order to provide optimum care.     

Problems with medical devices may be severely under-reported

The purposes of this study were to determine whether registered nurses are familiar with the Health Canada Medical Device Problem Report Form, and if so, how often they use it to report problems and concerns compared to how often they experience problems and concerns with medical devices. A survey was mailed to a random sample of 1,000 Ontario nurses to collect demographic information and to determine their familiarity with the aforementioned form, as well as the frequency with which they encounter problems/concerns with medical devices. Seventy-two and a half percent of the nurses reportedly have problems/concerns with medical devices at least yearly, yet 94.2% of them did not know that the Health Canada Medical Device Problem Report Form existed. Therefore, problems/concerns with medical devices encountered by registered nurses may be severely under-reported to Health Canada, contributing to an underestimate of the actual threat that devices pose to patient safety.     

Identifying patient and physician characteristics that affect compliance with antihypertensive medications

BACKGROUND: Compliance with antihypertensive medications is essential to the clinical management of hypertension. Poor compliance with antihypertensive medications has often been associated with treatment failure and disease progression. OBJECTIVE: To identify patient and prescriber characteristics that may influence compliance with antihypertensive medications. METHOD: We used pharmacy records within the Veterans Health Administration, a database which included 1292 patients and 656 physicians over a 2-year time period from April 1, 1996, to April 1, 1998. The level of compliance with antihypertensive medications was assessed using a measure developed for this purpose within the Administration. Three separate ordinary least squares regression models were conducted to ascertain the effects of patient and physician characteristics on compliance. RESULTS: Despite the importance of compliance in the clinical management of hypertension, poor compliance with antihypertensive drug treatment was still widespread. Patients who were younger and less active in their treatment decisions tended to be less compliant (P < 0.05 and 0.05, respectively). Health care providers who were older, residents in speciality care, and physicians (as compared with non-physicians) had patients who were also less likely to be compliant (P < 0.01, 0.01, and 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that in order to increase the effectiveness of medical care for hypertension, it is important to improve compliance with antihypertensive agents.     

Phone Triage for the Heart Failure Patient

Those of us who provide healthcare to heart failure patients recognize the increasing numbers of patients affected by the disease and the complexity of their clinical issues. Traditional care delivery systems are often inadequate to meet their needs. Hospitalization rates are high and patient symptoms are substantive. As healthcare systems evolve to better meet these needs, multidisciplinary teams are expanding to address these issues. One important system that should be instituted is phone triage to address urgent patient concerns. This element of care is traditionally provided by nurse practitioners or nurses. This article describes common reasons why heart failure patients call their providers, as well as discusses a systematic approach to managing these common patient concerns.     

THE PRACTICES OF EXPERT PSYCHIATRIC NURSES: ACCOMPANYING THE PATIENT TO A CALMER PERSONAL SPACE

The focus of the care of potentially aggressive psychiatric patients has been on the use of seclusion and restraints. Recent concerns, however, about the potential for patient injury have made it imperative that nurses use alternative methods to calm patients who are escalating. Little is known about how expert nurses de-escalate the escalating patient. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to uncover and describe the knowledge embedded in the stories of psychiatric nurses who are skilled in the practices of de-escalating an escalating patient. Twenty registered nurses were interviewed using an unstructured format. The analysis of the data revealed that these nurses were skilled at noticing the patient, reading the situation and the patient, knowing where the patient was on the continuum, understanding the meaning of the behavior, knowing what the patient needed, connecting with the patient, and matching the intervention with the patient's needs.     

Research Article: Cultural competence among Swedish child health nurses after specific training: A randomized trial

An urgent need to improve Swedish primary child health‐care nurses' cultural competence was revealed by previous research among nurses working in, and immigrant parents visiting, primary child health‐care services. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent to which specific training affected how nurses rated their own cultural competence, difficulties, and concerns and to study how the nurses evaluated the training. Conducted as a randomized controlled trial, the effects on a study sample of 51 nurses were assessed by questionnaires in a pre‐ and post‐study design. The findings indicated that the 3 days of training were appreciated by the nurses and had some effects on their cultural competence, difficulties, and concerns. The training might have had positive effects on the nurses' working conditions as they rated it to have an impact on their ability to cope with the demands of their work activities in the health services. These effects are presumed to contribute to an improved quality of the health services, with a reduction in the risk for health‐care disparities among children of immigrant parents.     

A retrospective pilot study: management of patients with heart failure.

An epidemic disease - a major cause of chronic disability - congestive heart failure adversely affects the health of millions. Congestive heart failure is the most frequent cause of cardiovascular hospital admissions and shares a significant responsibility for the high cost of healthcare. Despite medical and technological advances, studies show that the treatment of heart failure is suboptimal. Physician knowledge and awareness of appropriate treatment may contribute to patient compliance and improve delivery of healthcare. The purpose of this article is to examine how patients with heart failure in a heart failure clinic are managed. Recommendations are proposed and the role of nurses and clinicians in heart failure management is discussed.     

Management of pulmonary vasodilator therapy in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension during critical illness

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is commonly treated with pulmonary arteriolar vasodilator therapy. When a patient on PAH medication is admitted to intensive care, determining how to manage their medication during the critical illness is often complicated. There may be considerations related to the inability to take medication by mouth, related to acute renal failure or acute liver injury, related to altered mental status or delirium, or related to hypotension and bacteremia. Decisions of how to manage these medications can have a major impact on the patient’s clinical course. Presently, provider experience is the major tool in navigating the decisions regarding these medications. In this review, we offer our recommendations of how to manage PAH patients with critical illness who are on PAH medications. These recommendations include how to deliver medications via feeding tubes, how to dose medications in the setting of acute renal failure or acute liver failure, and how to manage medications during hypotension or when a tunneled catheter needs to be removed.     

The practices of expert psychiatric nurses: accompanying the patient to a calmer personal space

The focus of the care of potentially aggressive psychiatric patients has been on the use of seclusion and restraints. Recent concerns, however, about the potential for patient injury have made it imperative that nurses use alternative methods to calm patients who are escalating. Little is known about how expert nurses de-escalate the escalating patient. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to uncover and describe the knowledge embedded in the stories of psychiatric nurses who are skilled in the practices of de-escalating an escalating patient. Twenty registered nurses were interviewed using an unstructured format. The analysis of the data revealed that these nurses were skilled at noticing the patient, reading the situation and the patient, knowing where the patient was on the continuum, understanding the meaning of the behavior, knowing what the patient needed, connecting with the patient, and matching the intervention with the patient's needs.     

Integrating foot care into the everyday clinical practice of nurses

Foot care is an integral part of a patient's daily hygiene requirements, yet the authors have found it to be an area often neglected by nurses. Foot and toenail problems present a considerable challenge to nurses in all healthcare settings, especially for patients with diabetes. However, patients without diabetes also suffer from minor foot abnormalities or injuries that might have been preventable. One acute hospital ward has worked closely with the chiropody department to improve the nursing team's competence and confidence in foot hygiene assessment and toenail clipping and has, therefore, improved the patient experience during hospital admission. This article describes how the nursing team used education to improve the foot care services offered to patients.     

运用健康信念模式提高慢性肾功能衰竭患者健康教育效果

目的:探讨运用健康信念模式教育对慢性肾功能衰竭患者健康教育效果的影响。方法:选择2011年3月~2012年10月在我院肾内科住院治疗患者136例慢性肾功能衰竭患者随机等分成观察组和对照组,观察组根据健康信念模式对患者进行有针对性的健康教育,对照组进行慢行肾功能衰竭疾病常规健康教育,3个月后对两组患者健康教育效果进行比较。结果:两组患者对疾病相关知识的认识程度及遵医行为等相比较,差异具有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:运用健康信念模式能显著提高慢性肾功能衰竭患者健康教育效果,提高患者生活质量,值得临床推广应用。     

Perceptions and practice of concordance in nurses' prescribing consultations: findings from a national questionnaire survey and case studies of practice in England

BACKGROUND: The number of nurses able to independently prescribe medicines in England is increasing. Patient adherence to prescribed medicines remains a significant problem [Department of Health, 2000. Pharmacy in the Future: Implementing the NHS Plan. A Programme for Pharmacy in the NHS. Stationary Office, London]. Concordance-a partnership approach to medicine consultations-is advocated as an effective solution [Medicines Partnership, 2003. Project Evaluation Toolkit. Medicines Partnership, London]. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether nurses were practising the principles of concordance within their prescribing interactions. DESIGN: Phase (i) postal questionnaire survey. Phase (ii): case studies of practice. SETTINGS: Phase (i) primary and secondary care trusts throughout England in which nurse prescribers were practicing. Phase (ii) six general practice settings; one community midwifery service; one specialist community palliative care service; one secondary care ophthalmology unit; one NHS walk-in centre. PARTICIPANTS: Phase (i) a random sample of 246 nurses registered as independent nurse prescribers with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2002/2003. Phase (ii) purposively selected sample of 14 nurse prescribers who participated in Phase (i) of the study; a total of 208 purposively selected patients completed self-administered questionnaires. METHODS: Phase (i) postal questionnaires. Phase (ii) structured non-participant observation of 118 nurse prescribing consultations; 115 post-consultation patient questionnaires; 93-patient postal questionnaires. RESULTS: 99% of the nurses in the national survey stated they were practising the principles of concordance. The majority of patients surveyed also reported experiencing concordance in practice. Observation of practice revealed that although some principles of concordance were regularly integrated into nurses' practice, other principles were less often in evidence. Some evidence from both observation of practice and patient questionnaires suggested that a professionally determined 'compliance' agenda may still be partially operating in practice. CONCLUSIONS: Most nurses believe they are practicing concordance in their prescribing consultations. The majority of patients also reported that they had experienced some of the principles of concordance in practice. Observation of practice highlighted that the shift from a professionally determined compliance agenda to the integration of concordance into nurses' prescribing consultations had not yet taken place.     

Statutory disclosure in article 280 of the Turkish Penal Code

A new Turkish Penal Code came into effect on 1 June 2005. Article 280 concerns health care workers' failure to report a crime. This article removes the responsibility from health care workers to maintain confidentiality, but also removes patients' right to confidentiality. It provides for up to one year of imprisonment for a health care worker who, while on duty, finds an indication that a crime might have been committed by a patient and who does not inform the responsible authorities about it. This forces the health care worker to divulge the patient's confidential information. A patient who thinks he or she may be accused of a crime may therefore not seek medical help, which is the universal right of every person. The article is therefore contrary to medical ethics, oaths taken by physicians and nurses, and the understanding of patient confidentiality.     

Important Interactional Strategies for Everyday Public Health Nursing Practice

This Clinical Concepts article concerns the relational tools required by public health nurses to establish relationships with single mothers living on public assistance, mothers who are vulnerable and often stigmatized. The implications of stigmatization for relationship building are highlighted based on previous research investigating how public health nurses working in Canadian jurisdictions establish professional caring relationships with this cohort of mothers. Public health nurses employed interactional strategies including engaging in a positive manner and offering verbal commendations which served as effective relational tools to break through mothers' walls of defensiveness and to resume the dynamic process of relationship building. Building Relationship is a key practice standard for public health nurses and is instrumental to their work at both individual and community levels to improve social determinants of health. The author concludes with recommendations to facilitate building relationships during everyday public health nursing practice.     

Peritoneal dialysis retardation of progression of advanced renal failure.

OBJECTIVES: The rate of decline of residual renal function is slower in peritoneal dialysis (PD) than in hemodialysis. However, it is unclear which and whether either of the two techniques modifies the natural course of renal failure. We tested whether PD influences the natural course of the progression of chronic renal failure in humans. DESIGN: Retrospective review of clinical charts. SETTING: Tertiary-care center. PATIENTS: Fourteen patients were selected from the 36 patients that were treated with PD in our center from January 1997 to June 2000, applying the following criteria: predialysis follow-up longer than 12 months, renal creatinine clearance 20 mL/minute or more at the start of predialysis follow-up, follow-up while on PD longer than 6 months, and renal creatinine clearance above 0 mL/minute at the start of PD. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Residual renal function calculated as renal creatinine clearance obtained from 24-hour urine samples. RESULTS: A lower mean rate of decline of residual renal function was observed during PD than during the predialysis period (-0.06 +/- 0.16 vs -0.94 +/- 0.74 mL/min/month, p < 0.0005). The rate of decline in renal creatinine clearance was faster in every patient during the predialysis period than during his or her time on PD. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary data support the hypothesis that PD may contribute to the slowing of the natural progression of renal disease in humans, as it does in rodents. Prospective studies involving a larger number of patients are needed to settle the question.     

Advanced Nursing Experience Is Beneficial for Lowering the Peritonitis Rate in Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis

♦ Objectives: We explored the relationship between the experience level of nurses and the peritonitis risk in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients.♦ Methods: Our observational cohort study followed 305 incident PD patients until a first episode of peritonitis, death, or censoring. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the work experience in general medicine of their nurses—that is, least experience (<10 years), moderate experience (10 to <15 years), and advanced experience (≥15 years). Demographic characteristics, baseline biochemistry, and residual renal function were also recorded. Multivariate Cox regression was used to analyze the association of risks for all-cause and gram-positive peritonitis with patient training provided by nurses at different experience levels.♦ Results: Of the 305 patients, 91 were trained at the initiation of PD by nurses with advanced experience, 100 by nurses with moderate experience, and 114 by nurses with the least experience. Demographic and clinical variables did not vary significantly between the groups. During 13 582 patient–months of follow-up, 129 first episodes of peritonitis were observed, with 48 episodes being attributed to gram-positive organisms. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that training by nurses with advanced experience predicted the longest period free of first-episode gram-positive peritonitis. After adjustment for some recognized confounders, the advanced experience group was still associated with the lowest risk for first-episode gram-positive peritonitis. The level of nursing experience was not significantly correlated with all-cause peritonitis risk.♦ Conclusions: The experience in general medicine of nurses might help to lower the risk of gram-positive peritonitis among PD patients. These data are the first to indicate that nursing experience in areas other than PD practice can be vital in the training of PD patients.     

The problem of postoperative pain: issues for future research

Uncontrolled postoperative pain continues despite abundant research in the area. The purposes of the paper are to review how past research influences our understanding of pain in the postsurgery context and to argue for a methodological shift towards naturalistic inquiry. Such a shift incorporates the complexities of pain assessment and management in the clinical practice environment. Decisions regarding pain are often examined outside of the contextual concerns of clinical practice. Research approaches have involved analyses of nurse and patient-related factors associated with pain. These approaches do not account for complex interactions that occur between nurses, patients and the dynamic environment in which these interactions take place. The failure of research to address the context of pain decisions has several implications. It limits our understanding of why pain continues despite ongoing research and it does not enable evaluation of clinical strategies to improve pain decision-making and pain outcomes for patients.