335 research outputs found
sj-docx-1-pcr-10.1177_26323524211058895 – Supplemental material for How can social workers be meaningfully involved in palliative care? A scoping review on the prerequisites and how they can be realised in practice
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-pcr-10.1177_26323524211058895 for How can social workers be meaningfully involved in palliative care? A scoping review on the prerequisites and how they can be realised in practice by Brent Taels, Kirsten Hermans, Chantal Van Audenhove, Nadine Boesten, Joachim Cohen, Koen Hermans and Anja Declercq in Palliative Care and Social Practice</p
sj-docx-2-pcr-10.1177_26323524211058895 – Supplemental material for How can social workers be meaningfully involved in palliative care? A scoping review on the prerequisites and how they can be realised in practice
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-2-pcr-10.1177_26323524211058895 for How can social workers be meaningfully involved in palliative care? A scoping review on the prerequisites and how they can be realised in practice by Brent Taels, Kirsten Hermans, Chantal Van Audenhove, Nadine Boesten, Joachim Cohen, Koen Hermans and Anja Declercq in Palliative Care and Social Practice</p
Developing an ecological sensitivity in searching for evidence about professionals' agency in educational practices. Reflections from a case study
No full textThis contribution proposes a reflection upon the development of ecological sensitivity in inquiring the educators' agency in two Municipality-led after-school programmes in NE Italy. Ecological sensitivity is a researcher's disposition to maintain an encompassing perspective during the fieldwork, in order to highlight the 'gravitational world' [1] that impacts over the educators' agency in their daily practice. As a consequence, ecological sensitivity is the researcher's constant attitude of critical inspection on the relevance of context in analysing human activity. In developing an ecological sensitivity during the fieldwork, the researcher keeps an enlarged focus of observation to connect the educators’ agency to their past experience and motives in practice, the complex texture of the situation at hand, the tools and the events in the setting.
In this proposal, I discuss the recognition of the gravitational forces that affect the educators' agency in a case study research, by focussing on two interactional situations emerging in the context of a Municipality-led "Schooling Integrative Support", which are specifically designed services to support the children’s homework duties. I select situations as the relevant units of analysis to support ecological sensitivity because they contain all the characterising elements of a given activity and the specific contingencies in which the educators' agency unfolds. Situations are interactions that are nested within institutional activities and are based on children’s emergent interests and improvisations. The educators interpret the ongoing situation and intentionally act in order to achieve educational objectives by recognising constraints and resources in the setting, through the use of specific repertoires of practice.
In the two different situations presented in this contribution, the different paths of the educators’ agency are analysed in terms of their relations with the repertoires of practice, the nature of the school tasks and the educators’ positionality in relation to their institutional mandate, as well as to the schoolteachers.
The development of an ecological sensitivity in the case study research can improve the analysis of professional agency by highlighting:
- the different paths that professional agency can follow in a single institutional practice;
- the complex and conflicting relationships among different educational practices and the overwhelming role of schooling in other activities;
- the potential directions for participatory action research, based upon ecologically valid evidence of the practitioners’ professional experience
Observación participante en salas de asistencia para personas con enfermedades psiquicas: los problemas en torno a la confianza/desconfianza y el involucramiento emocional
No full textAnja Declerc beschreibt in ihrem Beitrag die Schwierigkeiten und Fallstricke, die mit einer Offenen Teilnehmenden Beobachtung auf Pflegestationen für psychisch kranke Menschen verbunden waren. Im Rahmen dieser Studie, die einen Vergleich der Organisation der Pflege in stationären Einrichtungen zum Ziel hatte, begleitete sie jeweils für mehrere Monate die Arbeit in vier verschiedenen Stationen. Dabei stellte sich heraus, daß das 'getting into' sich weitaus einfacher gestaltete als das 'getting along': Für das Pflegepersonal gab es zunächst wenig Gründe, einer "herumschnüffelnden" Soziologin Vertrauen zu schenken, bis sie im Laufe der Zeit glaubhaft machen konnte, daß sie nicht im Auftrag bzw. als "Spionin" der Stationsleitung agierte. Die Daten, die in diesem Forschungsprozeß gesammelt wurden, versteht und reflektiert die Autorin als kontextuelle Hervorbringungen, die sowohl durch die Wahrnehmung der Person der Forscherin durch andere als auch durch deren Miterleben des psychischen Leidens auf den Stationen beeinflußt sind.
URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0001254This contribution describes the problems and pitfalls associated with the use of (participant) observation in nursing home wards for people suffering from dementia. The research concentrated on how different nursing homes develop their care for inhabitants suffering from dementia. In order to study this, I was a known observer in four wards, each time for several months. "Getting in" to the wards did not prove to be very problematic, but "getting along" was a lot harder. There was no reason for staff to trust a snooping sociologist until I was able to convince them I was not a spy for management. It was quite clear that the information I received was influenced by the way I was perceived. Moreover, the dementia the inhabitants of the wards suffer from and their reaction to it did not leave me indifferent. This also could influence the data gathering process.
URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0001254URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs000125
Participant Observation in Nursing Home Wards for People Suffering from Dementia: The Problems of Trust and Emotional Involvement
No full textAnja Declerc beschreibt in ihrem Beitrag die Schwierigkeiten und Fallstricke, die mit einer Offenen Teilnehmenden Beobachtung auf Pflegestationen für psychisch kranke Menschen verbunden waren. Im Rahmen dieser Studie, die einen Vergleich der Organisation der Pflege in stationären Einrichtungen zum Ziel hatte, begleitete sie jeweils für mehrere Monate die Arbeit in vier verschiedenen Stationen. Dabei stellte sich heraus, daß das 'getting into' sich weitaus einfacher gestaltete als das 'getting along': Für das Pflegepersonal gab es zunächst wenig Gründe, einer "herumschnüffelnden" Soziologin Vertrauen zu schenken, bis sie im Laufe der Zeit glaubhaft machen konnte, daß sie nicht im Auftrag bzw. als "Spionin" der Stationsleitung agierte. Die Daten, die in diesem Forschungsprozeß gesammelt wurden, versteht und reflektiert die Autorin als kontextuelle Hervorbringungen, die sowohl durch die Wahrnehmung der Person der Forscherin durch andere als auch durch deren Miterleben des psychischen Leidens auf den Stationen beeinflußt sind.This contribution describes the problems and pitfalls associated with the use of (participant) observation in nursing home wards for people suffering from dementia. The research concentrated on how different nursing homes develop their care for inhabitants suffering from dementia. In order to study this, I was a known observer in four wards, each time for several months. "Getting in" to the wards did not prove to be very problematic, but "getting along" was a lot harder. There was no reason for staff to trust a snooping sociologist until I was able to convince them I was not a spy for management. It was quite clear that the information I received was influenced by the way I was perceived. Moreover, the dementia the inhabitants of the wards suffer from and their reaction to it did not leave me indifferent. This also could influence the data gathering process
Updating ‘Perceptions and opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic in Flanders, Belgium’ with data of two additional waves of a longitudinal study
No full textAdding to longitudinal data of three waves that were presented in an original dataset on perceptions and behaviours regarding government measures, fear of getting ill, and media use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Flanders (Belgium), this article presents information on two additional waves that were collected at two key moments in the pandemic in the same region: in late August 2020 (W4; as infection rates increased again; N = 505) and in the middle of March 2021, exactly one year after the first data collection (W5; N = 408). In W4 and W5, new respondents were added to the longitudinal sample to strengthen cross-sectional analyses. Additional information on informal care and physical activity was also collected. These data may be of interest to researchers who wish to explore dynamics of fear and attitudes towards public health measures during this particularly challenging time.status: Publishe
Editorial Introduction on Proceedings of the 2015 International Congress on Ultrasonics, 2015 ICU Metz
No full textAbstractA brief summary of the 2015 International Congress on Ultrasonics is presented. The 2015 ICU has taken place in Metz, France, at the Arsenal and was hosted by Georgia Tech Lorraine in collaboration with the French Acoustical Society. The congress hosted a record number of 700 participants. The report focuses on the awards presented during the congress, the invited speakers and some statistics. Other details can be found in reports available on the congress website. The author N. F. Declercq, president of 2015 ICU and Editor of the congress proceedings, wishes to publish the congress proceedings in loving memory of his father Maurice Alois who suddenly passed away 5 weeks after the end of the congress
Caring for Homecare: A multimethod analysis of the current and future role of home nurses
No full textBackground
Homecare is facing one of its biggest challenges: the growing imbalance between the increasing demand for care at home and the decreasing supply of home nurses. The demographic and economic evolutions and trends increasingly confront home nurses with caring for patients with frailty, functionalities, and multimorbidities, requiring more intensive and technically complex procedures to be done at home. Policymakers responding to these trends aim to shift the healthcare system towards a multidimensional, chronic disease-oriented system. Homecare has to engage in this process to help shaping and managing a model of homecare that focuses on the individual, chronic, healthcare needs of each patient, client, or informal caregiver; on patient empowerment; and on continuity of care. Furthermore, as the demand for homecare is continuously growing, questions arise concerning the supply of home nurses, which increases more slowly than the overall demand.
Consequently, the role of home nurses as providers of healthcare has been changing and will continue to change. However, are home nurses ready for this changing role and how does home nursing respond to these trends and evolutions in primary care? The retention of healthcare workers (what are important factors to stay in the job/healthcare); task shifting (what about the possibility of function differentiation); and task purification (what is the contribution of each team discipline to patient care) are important cornerstones to answer these questions. The ultimate aim of this dissertation was to support home nursing in this process by exploring the current and future role of home nurses in the perspective of these three cornerstones.
Retention of home nurses
In chapter 2 we used the Belimage Homecare instrument to provide insight in the professional self-image of 758 home nurses. This study highlighted both the positive self-image of home nurses and the existence of a delicate balance between the large degree of autonomy that home nurses have and the need to feel supported in their professional role and responsibility. The practice environment, including time pressure, workload and insufficient support, needs to be addressed in order to keep it from having a negative impact on the professional self-image of home nurses in the long-term.
Task shifting
In chapter 4 the technique of in-depth interviews was used to explore the experiences of twelve home nurses, twelve healthcare assistants and eight home nursing managers with regard to the delegation of nursing activities to healthcare assistants; the supervision of healthcare assistants; and the impact of this integration on the work of home nurses. All the participants reacted positively to the employment of healthcare assistants in the organization: healthcare assistants take care of a less care dependent patient population, allowing the home nurses to spend more time on more complex, technical nursing care. However, the analysis revealed some barriers, such as a knowledge gap and insecurity felt by healthcare assistants leading to unnecessary patient visits by home nurses; unfamiliarity of home nurses with the role of delegating activities and supervising healthcare assistants; and poor face-to-face communication between home nurses and healthcare assistants. These barriers often resulted in a loss of a holistic view on the patient situation.
Task purification
In chapter 3 the views and experiences of both primary care professionals and hospital healthcare workers were explored with regard to the shift of care from the hospital to the homecare setting. Therefore, in-depth interviews with fifteen home nurses and eight medical specialists, and two focus groups with eight and fifteen general practitioners, respectively, were performed. Three important statements were highlighted. First, it was difficult for the respondents to make a clear distinction between technical and complex interventions. Therefore, more research is needed to provide a clear definition of "technical" and "complex" interventions. Secondly, the earlier discharge of more palliative care patients and more chronically ill patients confronts primary care with more intensive and complex care at home and with a shift from pure technical interventions to more intellectual care. Thirdly, for home nursing to be ready for these changes, some financial and organizational aspects need to be addressed, such as the investment in specialized home nurses; a financing system that covers the daily (24-hour) practice of home nurses; the investment in a more and better integrated and properly financed multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration and communication.
In chapter 5 we explored the international literature to evaluate the instruments used to measure the activity profile of home nurses and to determine which activities home nurses perform in their daily practice. We identified nine studies. They all used different measurement instruments of questionable validity. We found that the activity profile of home nurses was mainly characterized by a combination of pure technical and surveillance activities with psychosocial and administrative activities. However, the level of abstraction in the activities performed by home nurses had a major impact on the interpretation of their activity profile.
Consequently, in the scope of the absence of a gold standard to measure the daily activities of home nurses in primary care, we developed and psychometrically tested the 24-hour recall instrument for home nursing in chapter 6. The validity and the interrater reliability of this instrument were high: the proportions observed agreement were very high; the strength of kappa agreement was substantial to almost perfect; the prevalence index showed great variety; and the bias index was low. The findings in this study supported the validity evidence based on test content and the interrater reliability of the 24-hour recall instrument. This instrument can be used to investigate the current activity profile of both home nurses, and auxiliary nurses or healthcare assistants in home nursing. This would provide important information for managers and policymakers to profile the activities of home nurses and healthcare assistants and to proactively anticipate to the fast evolving needs of home nursing.
In chapter 7 the 24-hour recall instrument for home nursing was used by 2478 home nurses and 277 healthcare assistants. The activity profile of home nurses and healthcare assistants was mainly characterized by self-care facilitation activities. In the combination of data, the activities from the category "self-care facilitation" were mainly performed in combination with other activities related to the categories "Other care", "Administration", and "Psychosocial care" for the home nurses; and "Other care", "Administration", and "Communication" for the healthcare assistants. This study is an important first step in the identification of what it is that home nurses and healthcare assistants do in homecare, using a validated and reliable measurement instrument for home nursing.
Conclusion
The ultimate aim of this dissertation was to help and to support home nurses to cope with the unfolding evolutions and trends by exploring the current and future role of home nurses in the perspective of the retention of home nurses, task shifting and task purification. We can conclude that home nurses have a positive professional self-image. This is an important foundation to cope with the existing imbalance and to retain the nurses in homecare. Furthermore, healthcare assistants were integrated in home nursing to maintain and improve the efficacy of home nursing. The fact that healthcare assistants take care of a group of patients that does not have a specific nursing indication or nursing need, is an important step in the support of this idea. However, further research is necessary to gain evidence for this statement. Finally, the use of a validated and reliable measurement instrument for home nursing (the 24-hour recall instrument for home nursing) highlighted that the activity profile of home nurses is mainly characterized by self-care facilitation activities in combination with more intellectual activities. However, further research is necessary to explore if the integration of healthcare assistants in home nursing shifted more complex (holistic) care situations to the home nurses and more simple hygiene care situations to the healthcare assistants.status: Publishe
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