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Child abuse remains a significant issue. Non-accidental head injury (NAHI) is a major cause of mortality in young children with survivors often having to live a life with severe developmental and neurological dysfunction. The aim of this hermeneutic phenomenological research study was to examine the lived experiences of nurses who care for children and their families admitted to hospital with a non-accidental head injury. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six nurses who had at least five years' experience of nursing children with NAHI. Following the interpretive approach described by van Manen data was analyzed and two essential themes identified. Firstly, nursing children with NAHI is different from the care of children admitted with a similar neurological injury related to accidental injuries or medical conditions. Secondly, when nursing these children nurses adopt protective qualities, conceptualized in this study as a shield of protection. The findings of this study support the findings of other studies in regard to the emotional labor required of nurses caring for children who have been subject to child abuse and the importance for nurses of maintaining a professional demeanor. The study highlighted the tensions of sustaining a family-centered care approach when caring for a child with NAHI. It is argued that greater acknowledgment and emotional support for nurses is needed and that a child-centered approach offers a more compatible model of care than Family-Centered Care in the acute phase of caring for children with a NAHI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medication errors are a frequent phenomenon in nursing, as the nurses are primarily responsible for preparation and administration of medications to patients. Little is known about how nurses make sense of their experiences of medication errors as a lived phenomenon. Objective: To aggregate, synthesise and interpret the qualitative evidence of studies which explored nurses' lived experiences of medication errors. Method: A meta‐synthesis is presented with thematic analysis by Thomas & Harden (BMC Medical Research Methodology, 8, 2008, 45). Qualitative studies (January 1980–June 2018) retrieved from PubMed, BNI, CINAHL, EMBASE, AMED, PsycINFO, ProQuest, ScienceDirect and Wiley Online Library. The PRISMA flow chart, CASP tool and COREQ checklist are integrated in the meta‐synthesis. Findings: Eight primary research studies were included with the follow themes: "moral impact," "emotional impact," "constructive learning," "impact on professional registration and employment," "nurses' coping strategies with the experience," "patient and family," "identification of contributing factors to medication errors" and "preventive measures for medication errors." Conclusion: The moral and emotional impact of medication errors to nurses was devastating for themselves. Yet, they detected strategies to cope with their error and its consequences and even more translated their experience into a constructive lesson and identified ways to prevent future errors. Relevance for clinical practice: The meta‐synthesis provides a holistic perspective about how registered nurses made sense of their lived experiences of medication errors. Its findings reveal that the experience has both positive impact and negative impact to the nurses. Its findings should inform mainly the clinical nursing practice, clinical nurses, nurse educators, nurse leaders and policymakers of medication administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives To gain knowledge about nurses' comfort level in assessing spiritual matters and to learn what questions nurses use in practice related to spiritual assessment. Background Spirituality is important in holistic nursing care; however, nurses report feeling uncomfortable and ill-prepared to address this domain with patients. Education is reported to impact nurses' ability to engage in spiritual care. Design This cross-sectional exploratory survey reports on a mixed-method study examining how comfortable nurses are with spiritual assessment. Method In 2014, a 21-item survey with 10 demographic variables and three open-ended questions were distributed to Norwegian nurses working in diverse care settings with 172 nurse responses (72 % response rate). SPSS was used to analyse quantitative data; thematic analysis examined the open-ended questions. Results/Findings Norwegian nurses reported a high level of comfort with most questions even though spirituality is seen as private. Nurses with some preparation or experience in spiritual care were most comfortable assessing spirituality. Statistically significant correlations were found between the nurses' comfort level with spiritual assessment and their preparedness and sense of the importance of spiritual assessment. How well-prepared nurses felt was related to years of experience, degree of spirituality and religiosity, and importance of spiritual assessment. Conclusion Many nurses are poorly prepared for spiritual assessment and care among patients in diverse care settings; educational preparation increases their comfort level with facilitating such care. Nurses who feel well prepared with spirituality feel more comfortable with the spiritual domain. Relevance to clinical practice By fostering a culture where patients' spirituality is discussed and reflected upon in everyday practice and in continued education, nurses' sense of preparedness, and thus their level of comfort, can increase. Clinical supervision and interprofessional collaboration with hospital chaplains and/or other spiritual leaders can facilitate tailor spiritual assessment of patients based on patient concerns and view of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Death is a common occurrence in intensive care units (ICUs) and the complexity of care makes it difficult for nurses to find a balance between the patient's physical needs and the family's emotional needs, especially in circumstances of unexpected death. Cumulative or unresolved grief for families can have lasting negative repercussions. Nurses, therefore, need access to bereavement education in order to provide optimal bereavement support. Purpose: The purpose of this review is to identify challenges and facilitators that nurses experience in delivering bereavement support during and after sudden or unexpected death in ICUs. Methods: A narrative overview was conducted based on a literature search using CINAHL, Medline, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Proquest databases, as well as grey literature, revealing 241 articles, 15 of which met inclusion criteria. Findings: Four themes surrounding bereavement support in the ICUs emerged: influence of hospital policies and organizational constraints; significance of time and trust; level of knowledge and support of staff; and nurses' inner conflict, moral distress, and personal ways of coping. Conclusion: The availability of up-to-date literature in this area is limited. Further research could inform organizational policies, nursing education, and nursing staff development to address existing barriers. With adequate resources, practical strategies could be implemented to provide bereavement support that ensures optimal bereavement outcomes for families experiencing sudden or unexpected death in ICUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The palliative care approach was originally developed for hospice care and for persons with cancer diseases, but has gradually expanded to embrace other contexts and people of all ages, with various life-threatening diseases. The palliative care concept thus also applies to older people and the context of municipal care, where Registered Nurses (RNs) hold key care provision positions. The municipal context is not, however, focused primarily on advanced nursing care, and it is important to highlight RNs' prerequisites for care provision. Aim: The study's aim was to describe RNs' experience of providing palliative care for older people in a municipal context. Data were collected through focus group discussions with 20 RNs from four different municipalities in southern Sweden and were analysed using conventional content analysis. Findings: The results showed that the nurses experienced that it was they who cushioned the effects of unclear responsibilities between different organizations, but had limited legitimacy in the municipal context and in relation to other care providers. The results also showed that nurses lacked proper support and prerequisites for providing high-quality palliative care to older dying patients. Conclusion: The results pinpoint the importance of increased acknowledgement of nurses' knowledge and skills and a critical view on the effects of moving towards an organization composed of different consultants, which can lead to even more unclear responsibility for nursing care provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]