scholarly journals New Zealand nurses use of humour in surgical nursing practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shelley Rose Van der Krogt

<p>Humour is a tool that can build rapport, establish communication and enable a therapeutic relationship: all of which are essential skills for nurses. For nurses to use humour in their practice they need to know when it is appropriate and when it could be beneficial for patients. However, much of the literature on nursing humour focusses on when not to use humour or provides contradictory messages about the use of humour. This is problematic as with little guidance, nurses may be hesitant to deploy humour with patients, potentially missing important opportunities to deliver more effective care.  The lack of evidence-based guidance about use of humour for nurses was a key driver for this study. Furthermore, with even less research in the surgical care setting, a stressful environment for patients and staff, the need to explore how and when humour is used in surgical nursing practice was important.  A qualitative descriptive methodology was used to explore how registered nursing working in a surgical environment decide when and how to use humour within nurse-patient interactions, and the use of humour during nurse-patient communication is assessed. Data collection was carried out in two surgical wards within a single site tertiary hospital in New Zealand. Nine registered nurses participated in group or individual interviews that were conducted using an interview guide incorporating semi-structured questions. Data were analysed thematically.  Findings demonstrate the humour is a significant feature of practice for surgical nurses with its use being purposeful and undertaken after careful consideration and assessment. Within three themes (assessing openness, building a connection, protection against vulnerability), humour was described as enabling nurses to quickly connect with patients and establish a therapeutic relationship. Humour facilitates communication, even under difficult circumstances, and provides an outlet for the perceived physical and emotional vulnerability experienced by both patients and nurses within the surgical environment.  Humour forms an integral part of surgical nursing practice. This thesis challenges surgical nurses to place an emphasis on raising the profile of humour in practice and develop skills to assess when to use, and when not to use humour. This will require the development of specific educational and professional strategies.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shelley Rose Van der Krogt

<p>Humour is a tool that can build rapport, establish communication and enable a therapeutic relationship: all of which are essential skills for nurses. For nurses to use humour in their practice they need to know when it is appropriate and when it could be beneficial for patients. However, much of the literature on nursing humour focusses on when not to use humour or provides contradictory messages about the use of humour. This is problematic as with little guidance, nurses may be hesitant to deploy humour with patients, potentially missing important opportunities to deliver more effective care.  The lack of evidence-based guidance about use of humour for nurses was a key driver for this study. Furthermore, with even less research in the surgical care setting, a stressful environment for patients and staff, the need to explore how and when humour is used in surgical nursing practice was important.  A qualitative descriptive methodology was used to explore how registered nursing working in a surgical environment decide when and how to use humour within nurse-patient interactions, and the use of humour during nurse-patient communication is assessed. Data collection was carried out in two surgical wards within a single site tertiary hospital in New Zealand. Nine registered nurses participated in group or individual interviews that were conducted using an interview guide incorporating semi-structured questions. Data were analysed thematically.  Findings demonstrate the humour is a significant feature of practice for surgical nurses with its use being purposeful and undertaken after careful consideration and assessment. Within three themes (assessing openness, building a connection, protection against vulnerability), humour was described as enabling nurses to quickly connect with patients and establish a therapeutic relationship. Humour facilitates communication, even under difficult circumstances, and provides an outlet for the perceived physical and emotional vulnerability experienced by both patients and nurses within the surgical environment.  Humour forms an integral part of surgical nursing practice. This thesis challenges surgical nurses to place an emphasis on raising the profile of humour in practice and develop skills to assess when to use, and when not to use humour. This will require the development of specific educational and professional strategies.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Poder ◽  
Nathalie Carrier ◽  
Suzanne K. Bédard

Introduction:Patients and families play an important role in preventing adverse events. The quality council at our hospital produced a communication tool in considering the main causes of adverse events and requested the health technology assessment (HTA) unit to validate it.Objectives:Assess the validity of the content of a tablemat sticker as an information tool for hospitalized patients.Methods:A qualitative validation was first performed with individual interviews and focus groups to evaluate the understanding of the content. The tool was modified and as a second step, a survey was conducted on patients and their families from a surgical care unit to validate their understanding and relevance of the content.Results:From the survey, patients and families found the tablemat attractive and stimulating (97 percent). It encouraged them to communicate with staff about the safety of their care (84 percent). They understood well the objective (79 percent) and text (90 percent), but less for the pictograms (30 percent to 62 percent). The communication and recommendations to avoid falling were good and 99 percent were wearing the medical identification. However, it was not clear that these indicators represented the real concerns of the patients and healthcare staff because no user evaluation was done when developing the tool.Conclusions:The tool was well understood, but some improvements are needed considering that pictograms were not always well understood and so need careful consideration from patient perspective. The HTA unit recommended conducting an unbiased survey to assess the concerns of patients and professionals to identify the most relevant indicators.


Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072199338
Author(s):  
Tiina Vares

Although theorizing and research about asexuality have increased in the past decade, there has been minimal attention given to the emotional impact that living in a hetero- and amato-normative cultural context has on those who identify as asexual. In this paper, I address this research gap through an exploration of the ‘work that emotions do’ (Sara Ahmed) in the everyday lives of asexuals. The study is based on 15 individual interviews with self-identified asexuals living in Aotearoa New Zealand. One participant in the study used the phrase, ‘the onslaught of the heteronormative’ to describe how he experienced living as an aromantic identified asexual in a hetero- and amato-normative society. In this paper I consider what it means and feels like to experience aspects of everyday life as an ‘onslaught’. In particular, I look at some participants’ talk about experiencing sadness, loss, anger and/or shame as responses to/effects of hetero- and amato-normativity. However, I suggest that these are not only ‘negative’ emotional responses but that they might also be productive in terms of rethinking and disrupting hetero- and amato-normativity.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Wailling ◽  
Brian Robinson ◽  
M Coombs

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: This study explored how doctors, nurses and managers working in a New Zealand tertiary hospital understand patient safety. Background: Despite health care systems implementing proven safety strategies from high reliability organisations, such as aviation and nuclear power, these have not been uniformly adopted by health care professionals with concerns raised about clinician engagement. Design: Instrumental, embedded case study design using qualitative methods. Methods: The study used purposeful sampling, and data was collected using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with doctors (n = 31); registered nurses (n = 19); and senior organisational managers (n = 3) in a New Zealand tertiary hospital. Results: Safety was described as a core organisational value. Clinicians appreciated proactive safety approaches characterized by anticipation and vigilance, where they expertly recognized and adapted to safety risks. Managers trusted evidence-based safety rules and approaches that recorded, categorized and measured safety. Conclusion and Implications for Nursing Management: It is important that nurse managers hold a more refined understanding about safety. Organisations are more likely to support safe patient care if cultural complexity is accounted for. Recognizing how different occupational groups perceive and respond to safety, rather than attempting to reinforce a uniform set of safety actions and responsibilities, is likely to bring together a shared understanding of safety, build trust and nurture safety culture.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emily Kathryn James

<p>This research investigates how young Somali women are navigating through the resettlement process while negotiating their own identities in Wellington, New Zealand. It is important as it addresses two main research gaps: 1) it focuses on research with young Somali women at university and 2) it offers a strength-based analysis. The research also addresses important development concerns about how former refugees can better contribute into their host societies. Employing the use of participatory methods within a feminist qualitative methodology, I created a project that enabled the young women to voice their opinions regarding identity construction, cultural maintenance and their goals for the future.  I conducted approximately 150 hours of ethnographic research at organisations that catered to former refugee needs. I found a young female Somali student who worked as my Cultural Advisor and enhanced my credibility and access within the Somali community. I then conducted a focus group and five individual interviews with young Somali women to hear their narratives about their resettlement experience and their advice on how to improve the process for others. I conducted five interviews with key informants at organisations that provide support services for former refugees. The key informants gave the policy perspective on refugee resettlement as well as advice on how support services and the government can approve the transition for former refugees.  The results of this study revealed that the young women did feel tension at times negotiating their Somali culture and that of their host society but found benefits in both. The importance of the family resettling successfully was vital for the young women especially the wellbeing of their mothers and other female elders. The key informants echoed these sentiments and voiced the necessity for more women-focused support services. The young women also will be facing a second resettlement process through their emigration to Australia as they search for more job opportunities and a better Somali cultural connection.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. 148-155
Author(s):  
Myles Dworkin ◽  
Thierry Cyuzuzo ◽  
Jean de Dieu Hategekimana ◽  
Jean Katabogama ◽  
Faustin Ntirenganya ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robynn Zender ◽  
Ellen Olshansky

Caring, a core tenet of nursing practice, grew out of a holistic approach. Nurse theorists often note the establishment of a therapeutic relationship as the beginning point of caring, with subsequent nursing interventions reliant upon this relationship for effectiveness. Relational exchange serves as a source of either stress or healing between participants, and rarely is its impact neutral. Relational stress, in fact, has become a primary contributor to many disease processes in terms of promotion and progression and perhaps even initiation. Patient–provider relationships have a long history in medical and nursing literature as critical to providing effective interventions, but our understanding of relational dynamics between patients and providers remains fairly superficial. This theoretical article adapts a previously described biobehavioral model to illustrate the nature and centrality of caring relationships in nursing practice. The dynamic process of face-to-face engagement is deconstructed from a psychobiological standpoint in order to understand the physiological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral impacts of relational interaction. This understanding is then applied to the patient–provider relationship. Finally, the utility of biomarkers of stress, positive emotion and resonance, and of disease is discussed relative to the patient-provider relationship. Methodological and interpretive challenges inherent in this line of research, along with suggestions to address such challenges, are also presented.


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 389-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Gyedu ◽  
Francis Abantanga ◽  
Ishmael Kyei ◽  
Godfred Boakye ◽  
Barclay T. Stewart

Introduction: This study aimed to describe the epidemiology and outcomes of intestinal obstruction at a tertiary hospital in Ghana over time. Methods: Records of all patients admitted to a tertiary hospital from 2007 to 2011 with intestinal obstruction were identified using ICD-9 codes. Sociodemographic and clinical data were compared to a previously published series of intestinal obstructions from 1998 to 2003. Factors contributing to longer than expected hospital stays and death were further examined. Results: Of the 230 records reviewed, 108 patients (47%) had obstructions due to adhesions, 50 (21%) had volvulus, 22 (7%) had an ileus from perforation and 14 (6%) had intussusception. Hernia fell from the 1st to the 8th most common cause of obstruction. Patients with intestinal obstruction were older in 2007-2011 compared to those presenting between 1998 and 2003 (p < 0.001); conditions associated with older age (e.g. volvulus and neoplasia) were more frequently encountered (p < 0.001). Age over 50 years was strong factor of in-hospital death (adjusted OR 14.2, 95% CI 1.41-142.95). Conclusion: Efforts to reduce hernia backlog and expand the surgical workforce may have had an effect on intestinal obstruction epidemiology in Ghana. Increasing aging-related pathology and a higher risk of death in elderly patients suggest that improvement in geriatric surgical care is urgently needed.


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