The Living,Dynamic and Complex Environment Care in Intensive Care Unit

OBJECTIVE:

to understand the meaning of the Adult Intensive Care Unit environment of care, experienced by professionals working in this unit, managers, patients, families and professional support services, as well as build a theoretical model about the Adult Intensive Care Unit environment of care.

METHOD:

Grounded Theory, both for the collection and for data analysis. Based on theoretical sampling, we carried out 39 in-depth interviews semi-structured from three different Adult Intensive Care Units.

RESULTS:

built up the so-called substantive theory "Sustaining life in the complex environment of care in the Intensive Care Unit". It was bounded by eight categories: "caring and continuously monitoring the patient" and "using appropriate and differentiated technology" (causal conditions); "Providing a suitable environment" and "having relatives with concern" (context); "Mediating facilities and difficulties" (intervenienting conditions); "Organizing the environment and managing the dynamics of the unit" (strategy) and "finding it difficult to accept and deal with death" (consequences).

CONCLUSION:

confirmed the thesis that "the care environment in the Intensive Care Unit is a living environment, dynamic and complex that sustains the life of her hospitalized patients".     

Nurses' adherence to the Kangaroo Care Method: support for nursing care management

OBJECTIVE:

construct an explanatory theoretical model about nurses'' adherence to the Kangaroo Care Method at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, based on the meanings and interactions for care management.

METHOD:

qualitative research, based on the reference framework of the Grounded Theory. Eight nurses were interviewed at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The comparative analysis of the data comprised the phases of open, axial and selective coding. A theoretical conditional-causal model was constructed.

RESULTS:

four main categories emerged that composed the analytic paradigm: Giving one''s best to the Kangaroo Method; Working with the complexity of the Kangaroo Method; Finding (de)motivation to apply the Kangaroo Method; and Facing the challenges for the adherence to and application of the Kangaroo Method.

CONCLUSIONS:

the central phenomenon revealed that each nurse and team professional has a role of multiplying values and practices that may or may not be constructive, potentially influencing the (dis)continuity of the Kangaroo Method at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The findings can be used to outline management strategies that go beyond the courses and training and guarantee the strengthening of the care model.     

Patient safety culture at neonatal intensive care units: perspectives of the nursing and medical team

OBJECTIVE:

to verify the assessment of the patient safety culture according to the function and length of experience of the nursing and medical teams at Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

METHOD:

quantitative survey undertaken at four Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Florianópolis, Brazil. The sample totaled 141 subjects. The data were collected between February and April 2013 through the application of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. For analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-Square tests and Cronbach''s Alpha coefficient were used. Approval for the research project was obtained from the Ethics Committee, CAAE: 05274612.7.0000.0121.

RESULTS:

differences in the number of positive answers to the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, the safety grade and the number of reported events were found according to the professional characteristics. A significant association was found between a shorter Length of work at the hospital and Length of work at the unit and a larger number of positive answers; longer length of experience in the profession represented higher grades and less reported events. The physicians and nursing technicians assessed the patient safety culture more positively. Cronbach''s alpha demonstrated the reliability of the instrument.

CONCLUSION:

the differences found reveal a possible relation between the assessment of the safety culture and the subjects'' professional characteristics at the Neonatal Intensive Care Units.     

Presence and extent of the primary health care attributes among children hospitalized for pneumonia

OBJECTIVE:

to analyze the presence and extent of the primary health care attributes among children hospitalized for pneumonia.

METHOD:

observational and retrospective study with hospital-based case-control design, developed in three hospitals associated to the Brazilian Unified Health System, located in a city of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The study included 690 children under five years old, with 345 cases and 345 controls.

RESULTS:

both groups scored high for access to health services. In contrast, high scores for attributes such as longitudinality and coordination of care were observed for the controls. Despite low scores, integrality and family counseling were also high for the controls.

CONCLUSION:

knowledge of the aspects involving the primary health care attributes and its provision for child care are very important because they have the potential to support professionals and managers of the Brazilian Unified Health System in the organization of health services.     

Prenatal Care for Adolescents and attributes of Primary Health Care

Objective

evaluate prenatal care for adolescents in health units, in accordance with the attributes of Primary Health Care (PHC) guidelines.

Method

quantitative study conducted with health professionals, using the Primary Care Assessment Tool-Brazil to assess the presence and extent of PHC attributes.

Results

for all the participating units, the attribute Access scored ≤6.6; the attributes Longitudinality, Coordination (integration of care), Coordination (information systems) and Integrality scored ≥6.6, and the Essential Score ≤6.6. Comparing basic units with family health units, the attribute scores were equally distributed; Accessibility scored ≤6.6, the others attributes scored ≥6.6; however, in the basic units, the Essential Score was ≤6.6 and, in the family health units, ≥6.6.

Conclusion

expanding the coverage of family health units and the training of professionals can be considered strategies to qualify health care.     

The cultural dialogue on the domestic dimension of care to immigrant caregivers in Spain

Objectives:

to determine how the immigration phenomenon influences the response to informal care in the domestic level through the caregiver activity, and to analyze the cultural dialogue established in the residential area of Murcia (Spain).

Method:

This is an ethnographic study, conducted in 26 informal immigrant caregivers. As data collection instruments, semi-structured interviews and participant observation were employed. MAXQDA-2 assisted content analysis was also applied.

Results:

the immigrant caregiver is the main consumer of traditional medicines, extending these health practices to her home group. A cultural dialogue is established on informal care, characterized by interculturalism and mutual adaptation.

Conclusions:

cultural hybridization was identified for informal caregivers, immigrants and cultural integration: new health care practices and cultural behaviors in informal systems. There is a transformation in the roles of family members attended in domestic environments, increasing quality of life and self care. They represent an alternative to medicalization, promoting self-management of health.     

Quality of nursing care and satisfaction of patients attended at a teaching hospital

Objectives

assess the quality of nursing care, the patients'' satisfaction and the correlation between both.

Method

cross-sectional study, involving 275 patients hospitalized at a teaching hospital in the Central-West of Brazil. The data were collected through the simultaneous application of three instruments. Next, they were included in an electronic database and analyzed in function of the positivity, median value and Spearman''s correlation coefficients.

Results

among the nursing care assessed, only two were considered safe - hygiene and physical comfort; nutrition and hydration - while the remainder were classified as poor. Nevertheless, the patients were satisfied with the care received in the domains assessed: technical-professional, confidence and educational. This can be justified by the weak to moderate correlation that was observed among these variables.

Conclusion

Despite the quality deficit, the patients'' satisfaction level with the nursing care received was high. These results indicate that the institution needs to center its objectives on a continuing evaluation system of the care quality, aiming to attend to the patients'' expectations.     

Primary Health Care Evaluation: the view of clients and professionals about the Family Health Strategy

Objective:

to evaluate the attributes of primary health care as for access; longitudinality; comprehensiveness; coordination; family counseling and community counseling in the Family Health Strategy, triangulating and comparing the views of stakeholders involved in the care process.

Method:

evaluative research with a quantitative approach and cross-sectional design. Data collected using the Primary Care Assessment Tool for interviews with 527 adult clients, 34 health professionals, and 330 parents of children up to two years old, related to 33 family health teams, in eleven municipalities. Analysis conducted in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software, with a confidence interval of 95% and error of 0.1.

Results:

the three groups assessed the first contact access - accessibility with low scores. Professionals evaluated with a high score the other attributes. Clients assigned low score evaluations for the attributes: community counseling; family counseling; comprehensiveness - services rendered; comprehensiveness - available services.

Conclusions:

the quality of performance self-reported by the professionals of the Family Health Strategy is not perceived or valued by clients, and the actions and services may have been developed inappropriately or insufficiently to be apprehended by the experience of clients.     

The principle of integrality of care in the political-pedagogical projects of nursing programs

Objective:

to identify the political-pedagogical projects of the undergraduate nursing programs in Santa Catarina, Brazil according to the guidelines of the Ministries of Health and Education, considering the education of professionals under the principle of integrality.

Method:

documentary study with a qualitative approach. Nine projects were analyzed.

Results:

the colleges from the Southern region of Brazil are gradually incorporating the theoretical framework of the Brazilian health system and curricular guidelines, which includes the principle of integrality of care, into their political-pedagogical projects of undergraduate nursing programs. Some institutions strictly follow the curricular guidelines, while others make their own interpretation.

Conclusion:

most teaching institutions do not provide pedagogical support to students.