Giacchero Vedana, K. G., Magrini, D. F., Zanetti, A. C., Miasso, A. I., Borges, T. L., & dos Santos, M. A. (2017). Attitudes towards suicidal behaviour and associated factors among nursing professionals: A quantitative study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 24(9-10), 651–659. Web.
Suicide is one of the major causes of death among young adults and teenagers. Consequently, undivided attention in healthcare and nursing is given to suicidal behavior. However, Giacchero et al. (2017) propose that the attitude of emergency nurses towards suicide may drastically affect the care provided while factors that are associated with or affect these attitudes remain arbitrary. The article by Giacchero et al. (2017) tries to investigate the attitude of caregivers towards the suicide inclined behavior and the factors associated with it in emergency settings.
This is a quantitative study that utilized the method of a cross-sectional observation. The research included the responses of twenty-eight nurses, and their assistants (118) from two Brazilian emergency services. The data was gathered via a Suicide Behavior Attitude Questionnaire and a self-administered sociodemographic questionnaire in 2015. According to the research, a major part of the participants had no experience or training in relation to mental health or suicide. This fact is an issue of major concern due to their direct role in preventing further suicide attempts.
The participants demonstrated low level of self-perception in terms of working competence with regards to suicide inclined behavior and higher level of negative relation towards the patients; these factors seemed to fortify each other. Moreover, some professionals reported serious thoughts at attempting to commit suicide. The factors which affect the perception of and act towards suicidal behavior were associated with workplace and professional category, along with training specific for suicide and experience of work in mental health services. Moreover, the authors identified heightened moralistic attitudes, especially among nursing assistants and workers with little to no experience in mental health.
Consequently, the researchers highlighted the fact that prior experience in mental health services would contribute to the reduction of moralistic attitudes. The authors conclude that the practice of mental health nursing in combination with support at training may produce favorable attitudes and emotional competencies and emphasize the need to address these issues in suicide education strategies.
Moosavi, S., Rohani, C., Borhani, F., & Akbari, M. E. (2018). Factors affecting spiritual care practices of oncology nurses: A qualitative study. Supportive Care in Cancer, 27(3), 901–909. Web.
Spiritual care refers to palliative care focused on improving the relationship of people with themselves, God, others, and nature to find meaning in their life. The research by Moosavi et al. (2018) is qualitative and focused on the difficulties faced by nurses in oncology at the time of the utilization and implementation of spiritual care. The researchers utilized a method of conventional content analysis based upon the responses collected from the 25 participants from Iran during a semi-structured interview. The participants consisted of psychologists, oncology nurses, cancer patients and their family, spiritual researcher-therapists and physicians.
The criteria for inclusion of cancer patients were older than or 18 years of age, physical and mental ability to participate in the research. The criteria for healthcare workers were at least six months of working practice in the department of oncology. For a spiritual researcher-therapist the criteria include at least two research studies on spirituality and pertaining experience in conducting a spiritual care
The study found that Bispiritual inefficiency and competency were main factors among nurses working in oncology in consideration of the utilization of spirituality related care for patients diagnosed with cancer. More importantly, the study found the need to stress the establishment of coherent programs in spiritual care in hospitals and the exclusion of administrative barriers. The recommendations made by researchers include the need for education of spiritual care at schools with nursing courses and the continuation of such programs for healthcare team members.
Simultaneously, the organization of spiritual care team consisting of oncology nurses at healthcare centers along with the definition of their roles and responsibilities is similarly essential. Furthermore, fruitful results in the improvement of spiritual care could be achieved if hospital managers would establish a system of monitoring and identify the needs for the spiritual care of patients and barriers that prevent its implementation.