Partners in healing: home care, hospice, and parish nurses

A creative way to support patients in self-care strategies is to work with the parish nurse as a practice partner. This article shares approaches and innovative ideas on how home care and hospice nurses can work effectively with parish nurses.     

Hospital nurses and stress

This study is a comparison between hospital nurses who work in "open and closed" units. In open units, patient and his family have free transit and in closed units, like critical care unit, patient and his family have limitation in transit. The results demonstrated that nurses who worked in open unit had higher stress score than nurses in closed units. For both groups, personal administration had high stress score. The nurses' education is important to improve her performance.     

A comparative study of the spiritual perspectives and interventions of mental health and parish nurses

Spirituality is an integral part of holistic nursing practice. Limited research has been done that explores nurses' spirituality and the spiritual interventions they have made with patients in their practice. Much of the extant research has been done on nurses involved in terminal care such as oncology and hospice nursing. This study explores spiritual perspectives and spiritual nursing interventions in two other nursing specialties that require holistic nursing care as well: mental health and parish nurses. The findings indicate that both groups report high spiritual perspective scores and provide a variety of interventions to patients in their practices.     

Decision-making skills and critical thinking ability among associate degree, diploma, baccalaureate, and master's-prepared nurses

A key component of nursing practice is the nurse's ability to process information and to make decisions. One goal of most educational programs for nurses is to enhance students' cognitive abilities and clinical decision-making skills. This study investigated the differences in critical thinking ability and decision-making skills among 121 associate degree, diploma, baccalaureate, and master's-prepared nurses. Results indicated that nurses with master's and baccalaureate degrees had the highest scores in critical thinking ability. Subjects' decision-making skills were measured related to: 1) frequency in making decisions, 2) difficulty in making decisions, and 3) factors which influence decision making. No significant differences were found among the four groups related to the three dimensions of decision-making skills. Experience and knowledge were the most influential factors in decision making. Study findings have implications for investigating differences among nursing students related to cognitive abilities.     

县级医院急诊护士与病房护士工作压力源的调查分析

目的 :了解县级医院急诊科护士与病房护士工作中主要的压力来源 ,为减轻护士的压力提供科学的依据 ,以便提高护士的身心健康水平。方法 :采用问卷调查法 ,对急诊科和普通病房各 5 0名护士的工作压力源进行了调查。结果 :护理专业及工作方面的问题 ,工作量及时间分配问题 ,病人护理方面的问题护士感到压力程度较高 ;环境及资源方面的问题 ,管理及人际关系方面问题压力程度一般。对于环境及资源方面的问题 ,急诊科护士与病房护士相比压力程度差异有显著性意义(P <0 .0 5 )。建议 :提出减轻护士压力源的措施 :①改善急诊科不良的工作环境 ;②合理编设病房护理人员 ;③减少病房护士的书面工作 ;④护理管理者应加强对护士的关怀 ,增强应对压力的能力     

Needs assessment of homebound elders in a parish church: implications for parish nursing

The goals in managing chronic illnesses in the elderly are to maintain the highest possible level of functioning, promote independence in self-care, and enhance quality of life. Parish nursing is one mechanism for providing care for homebound elders with one or more chronic illnesses. However, determining the holistic health needs of older parishioners before developing a parish nursing program is helpful. The holistic needs of elders in two parishes were determined through two multidimensional functional assessment questionnaires and a quality of life scale. Results indicate that this population of elders had relatively high levels of functioning. Quality of life was relatively high and was associated with overall functional abilities.