Impact Of Health Care Professionals Research Articles

Patients' expectations and experiences with the usage of a self-care application for heart failure: A qualitative interview study.

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic disease characterized by high mortality and healthcare expenditures. Digital health solutions, including mobile health applications (apps), offer opportunities to enhance patients' self-care and quality of life. This qualitative study aimed to explore expectations, experiences, and usage behaviour of HF-patients regarding a self-care app (DoctorME app). Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 2-3 weeks (initial: n = 38), and 4-6 months (post: n = 45) of app use across four European countries. Most patients were male (initial: 84%; post: 78%), aged 60-69 years (initial and post: 29%), with mild HF symptoms. Interviews were transcribed, pseudonymised, and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Five key themes were identified: 1) expectations, 2) perceived usability and benefit, 3) usage behaviour and experiences, 4) self-care, and 5) social influences. Patients expected and valued continuous monitoring of vital signs and weight, early detection of deterioration, and quick feedback. The app was considered user-friendly, with most patients using it as recommended (eight times per month). Those reporting improved self-care attributed it to increased awareness and a sense of security. Patients with established self-care routines did not perceive any additional benefit. Patients' perceptions on the impact of healthcare professionals' and relatives opinions on app use were divided. User-friendliness, continuous monitoring, rapid feedback, and e-learning modules are crucial for integrating self-care apps into daily HF care. While technical reliability and individualisation may enhance long-term use, most HF patients considered the app as a complement to, not a replacement for, professional healthcare guidance.

A qualitative study of motivation to self-management in pediatric diabetes health care consultations with adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Background. The impact of health care professionals on the motivation for self-management in adolescents with type 1 diabetes has been highlighted as important. It is, however, not well understood how health care practitioners can help increasing motivation to self-management. The aim of the study was to investigate how practitioners can motivate their patients to self-management in consultation and how adolescents with type 1 diabetes experienced that consultation could facilitate motivation to self-management. Methods. The study triangulated participant observations of 11 consultations at a pediatric health care clinic and 10 interviews of the adolescents (age 15-17) about their experiences of consultations. The analysis showed five categories: 1. Consultation dialogue, 2. Roles in treatment, 3. Assuming consultation-facilitated responsibility for self-management, 4. Relationship in treatment, and 5. Consultation context. Results. Overall findings showed that the adolescent’s developmental process of becoming autonomous in relation to self-management was influenced by consultations, and that the need of feeling related was experienced as valued by the adolescents. Conclusions. The feeling of relatedness and development of autonomy were experienced as important for how consultations could facilitate motivation to self-management in 15-17-year-olds and may be fundamental to adolescents’ experience of competence in relation to self-management.

Experience of loss and grief among people from Germany who have lost their relatives during the pandemic: the impact of healthcare professionals' support.

Due to public restrictions during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were unable to visit and bid a proper farewell to their dying loved ones. This study aimed to address the loss-oriented aspects of grief and bereavement of relatives and relate these to the support they may have received from their dying relative's caring professionals. People from Germany who experienced bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic were enrolled in a cross-sectional study between July 2021 and May 2022, using standardized questionnaires (i.e., ICG, Inventory of Complicated Grief; BGL, Burdened by Grief and Loss scale; WHO-5, WHO-Five Wellbeing Index; and 5NRS, perception of burden related to the pandemic). Most participants (n = 196) had the opportunity to visit their relatives before death (59%). When this was not possible, being burdened by grief and loss was significantly higher (Eta2 = 0.153), while this had no significant influence on complicated grief or psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, 34% of participants felt well-supported by the treatment/care team. Their own support was moderately correlated with BGL scores (r = -0.38) and marginally with ICG scores (r = -15). Regression analyses showed that complicated grief symptoms as the dependent variable were predicted by (low) psychological wellbeing, relational status, and the perception of COVID-19-related burden (R2 = 0.70). In contrast, BGL as the dependent variable can be best explained by the perception of emotional affections because of restricted visits shortly before their death, by the (short) duration of visits before death, and by the relational status (R2 = 0.53). Although both were interconnected (r = 0.44), their predictor pattern was different. Being able to visit dying relatives was important for the mourning and bereavement processes. This emotional aspect was more relevant to the normal, non-pathological grief and loss processes than to complicated grief processes. Support from their dying relatives' treatment/care team was highly relevant to the mourning process, but the visiting relatives often lacked information about additional resources such as psychologists or pastoral care professionals or had limited access to them.

Returning to work: a qualitative study of the experiences of head and neck cancer survivors.

UK head and neck cancer incidence and prevalence in working-age people are increasing. Work is important for individuals and society. Head and neck cancer survivors return to work less than other cancer survivors. Treatment affects physical and psychological functioning long-term. Evidence is limited, with no UK qualitative studies. A qualitative study was conducted, underpinned by a critical realism approach, involving semi-structured interviews with working head and neck cancer survivors. Interviews were conducted using the Microsoft Teams communication platform and interpreted using reflexive thematic analysis. Thirteen head and neck cancer survivors participated. Three themes were drawn from the data: changed meaning of work and identity, return-to-work experiences, and the impact of healthcare professionals on returning to work. Physical, speech and psychosocial changes affected workplace interactions, including stigmatising responses by work colleagues. Participants were challenged by returning to work. Work interactions and context influenced return-to-work success. Head and neck cancer survivors want return-to-work conversations within healthcare consultations, but perceived these as absent.

The intersection of culture in the provision of dementia care: A systematic review.

To understand the intersection of healthcare professionals' and care workers' culture and their provision of person-centred care for people with dementia. Due to the nature of global immigration and recruitment strategies, health care is provided by a culturally diverse workforce. Consequently, there is a need to understand healthcare professionals' and care workers' cultural values of illness, disease and dementia. Cultural values and beliefs regarding dementia and care of the older person differ, and currently, there is a lack of clarity regarding the intersection of culture in the provision of person-centred dementia care. A search of the following databases was completed: Medline, CINAHL, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, PsycINFO and PubMed for papers published from 1st January 2006 to 31st July 2016. A total of seven qualitative studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, all explored the impact of healthcare professionals' and care workers' culture in relation to their provision of person-centred dementia care. A meta-synthesis of the data from these studies identified four themes: cultural perceptions of dementia, illness and older people; impact of cultural perceptions on service use; acculturation of the workforce; and cross-cultural communication. Limited evidence was found on the impact of healthcare professionals' and care workers' culture on their provision of person-centred dementia care. The intersection of culture and dementia included the understanding of dementia, care and family roles. Acculturation of migrant healthcare workers to the culture of the host country, workplace, and support with the communication was identified as necessary for the provision of person-centred dementia care. Open access education and training to support communication is required, alongside the development of robust interventions to support the process of acculturation of migrant healthcare professionals and care workers to provide culturally competent person-centred dementia care.

The impact of healthcare professionals’ personality and religious beliefs on the decisions to forego life sustaining treatments: an observational, multicentre, cross-sectional study in Greek intensive care units

ObjectivesTo assess the opinion of intensive care unit (ICU) personnel and the impact of their personality and religious beliefs on decisions to forego life-sustaining treatments (DFLSTs).SettingCross-sectional, observational, national study in...

The impact of health care professionals’ service orientation on patients’ innovative behavior

The increasing availability of medical information and the rising relevance of patient communities drive the active role of health consumers in health care processes. Patients become experts on their disease and provide valuable stimuli for novel care solutions. Medical encounters evolve toward a more collaborative health care service process, where patients are accepted as equal partners. However, the patient's active role depends on the interaction with the involved health care professionals. The aim of this article is to examine whether the service orientation of health care professionals and their proactive and adaptive work behavior and the extent of shared goals within the necessary interdisciplinary health professional team influence patients' innovative behavior. We address six rare diseases and use interview and survey data to test theoretically derived hypotheses. The sample consists of 86 patients and their 160 health care professionals. Sixty patients provided additional information via interviews. Patients' innovative behavior is reflected by the number of generated ideas as well as the variety of ideas. The service orientation of work teams plays an important role in the innovation process of patients. As hypothesized, the extent of shared goals within the health care teams has a direct effect on patients' idea generation. Work adaptivity and proactivity and shared goals both reinforce the positive effect of service orientation. Furthermore, significant associations between the three independent variables and the second outcome variable of patient's idea variety are confirmed. The study underlines (1) the important role of patients within health care service innovation processes, (2) the necessity of a service-oriented working climate to foster the development of innovative care solutions for rare diseases, and (3) the need for an efficient cooperation and open mindset of health care professionals to motivate and support patient innovation.

What Conversations Do Bereaved Parents Remember?

Objective: Memories of conversations with health professionals are among the outcomes in the end-of-life care of children. Little is known about their nature or content. We conducted interviews with bereaved parents to determine whether there were conversations with healthcare professionals that they continue to revisit, positive or negative, five years following their child’s death, and consider their themes. Methods: Parents of children who had died aged 1 month to 11 years were interviewed, using a focused ethnographic approach. Thematic analysis was performed on interview transcripts. Results: Families recalled specific negative (10/16) and positive encounters (11/16). Positive memories exhibited empathic protectiveness, personal disclosure by health care providers, and authenticity. Negative memories revealed medicalized insensitivity to the family’s experience and emotional distance. Conclusions: Bereaved parents had memories of specific conversations with healthcare professionals years following their child’s death. They did not recall family meetings or technically-oriented moments, but moments marked by relational aspects. Insensitivity or lack of empathy were negative themes. Empathic protectiveness, personal disclosure, and authenticity at moments in care created enduring positive memories. The findings support the importance of humanistic involvement with patients, demonstrating the enduring impact of healthcare professionals in critical life events.

Perceived barriers to self-management for people with dementia in the early stages

People with dementia in the early stages currently experience a care gap, which self-management may address. We explore perceived barriers to self-management. Using a systematic approach (logic mapping), 19 participants (people with dementia, carers, health care professionals and charity representatives) described self-management barriers facing people living with dementia. Thematic content analysis revealed six main themes: the lived experience of dementia, diagnosis, role of carer/family, impact of health care professionals, organisation of health services and societal views. People with dementia were seen as passive recipients of care, unable to self-manage owing to the impact of dementia on cognitive abilities. The need for interventions that are largely emotion focused, encourage activity maintenance and improve quality of life are described. Barriers to self-management exist at multiple levels, suggesting a whole-systems approach is required.

Work place experiences and pro-social organisational behaviour

The public health system in India is vibrant in meeting the health care demands of the rural people through Primary Health Centres (PHC). In the Health Work Force Decade (2006 - 2015), understanding the human resource issues of medical officers and staff nurses working in PHCs is highly important. Moreover, the attitude of these health care professionals influences the quality of care they deliver to patients. Therefore, this study proposes a conceptual framework that examines the impact of health care professionals' perception about work place experiences which encompasses HRM practices, PHC infrastructure and social support in the work place on prosocial organizational behavior. The study considers employee attitudes such as organizational commitment, professional commitment and job satisfaction as mediators in the relationship between work place experiences and prosocial organizational behavior. The study is proposed to be conducted in selected PHCs located in the state of TamilNadu. When empirically tested, this study would highlight the human resource issues so that the system could respond effectively to the demands in health care workforce.

Patients' experiences of completing treatment for colorectal cancer in a Scottish District General Hospital

A review of the cancer literature from 1990 to 2003 indicated that some patients with cancer felt abandoned by healthcare professionals upon completion of treatment. With this in mind, a small qualitative study was undertaken to explore the experiences of patients completing treatment for colorectal cancer within a Scottish District General Hospital. A small purposeful sample of eight participants (surgery only n = 4 and surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy n = 4) who had completed treatment were recruited. Semi-structured interviews, in a venue chosen by the participants (home n = 7; hospital n = 1), were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The mean time since completion of treatment was 30 weeks (range 9-95 weeks). Transcripts were read and reread several times to identify categories. By thematic analysis, five categories were identified: physical impact of treatment, completion of treatment, support of family and friends, impact of healthcare professionals and coping mechanisms. Despite the significant physical impact of treatment patients returned to their previous lifestyles and status. Although very optimistic and positive when treatment was completed, participants reflected upon their cancer recurring. Family and friends were the main providers of support during their experiences, and healthcare professionals impacted upon participants both positively and negatively. Overall, the completion of treatment was described as a 'great feeling' and 'relief', with patients reporting that they felt adequately supported by healthcare professionals after completion of treatment.

The Future for Children with Special Care Needs: The Impact of Health Care Professionals

The Future for Children with Special Care Needs: The Impact of Health Care Professionals