In general, patient participation is regarded as being informed and partaking in decision making regarding one’s care and treatment. This interpretation is common in legislation throughout the Western world and corresponding documents guiding health care professionals, as well as in scientific studies. Even though this understanding of the word participation can be traced to a growing emphasis on individuals’ autonomy in society and to certain dictionary defi nitions, there are other ways of understanding participation from a semantic point of view, and no trace of patients’ descriptions of what it is to participate can be found in these definitions. Hence, the aim of this dissertation was to understand patients’ experience of the phenomenon of patient participation. An additional aim was to understand patients’ experience of non-participation and to describe the conditions for patient participation and non-participation, in order to understand the prerequisites for patient participation. The dissertation comprises four papers. The philosophical ideas of Ricoeur provided a basis for the studies: how communication can present ways to understand and explain experiences of phenomena through phenomenological hermeneutics. The first and second studies involved a group of patients living with chronic heart failure. For the fi rst study, 10 patients were interviewed, with a narrative approach, about their experience of participation and non-participation, as defi ned by the participants. For the second study, 11 visits by three patients at a nurse-led outpatient clinic were observed, and consecutive interviews were performed with the patients and the nurses, investigating what they experience as patient participation and non-participation. A triangulation of data was performed to analyse the occurrence of the phenomena in the observed visits. For paper 3 and 4, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among a diverse group of people who had recent experience of being patients. The questionnaire comprised respondent’s description of what patient participation is, using items based on findings in Study 1, along with open-ended questions for additional aspects and general issues regarding situations in which the respondent had experienced patient participation and/or non-participation. The findings show additional aspects to patient participation: patient participation is being provided with information and knowledge in order for one to comprehend one’s body, disease, and treatment and to be able to take self-care actions based on the context and one’s values. Participation was also found to include providing the information and knowledge one has about the experience of illness and symptoms and of one’s situation. Participation occurs when being listened to and being recognised as an individual and a partner in the health care team. Non-participation, on the other hand, occurs when one is regarded as a symptom, a problem to be solved. To avoid non-participation, the information provided needs to be based on the individual’s need and with recognition of the patient’s knowledge and context. In conclusion, patient participation needs to be reconsidered in health care regulations and in clinical settings: patients’ defi nitions of participation, found to be close to the dictionaries’ description of sharing, should be recognised and opportunities provided for sharing knowledge and experience in two-way-communication.

Background: Forensic psychiatry is characterised by compulsory care and long hospital stays, where nurses care for patients with severe mental illness, who often have committed crimes. The main objective is to rehabilitate the patient to once again become a part of society by improving mental health and decreasing the risk of criminal relapse. This is mainly achieved through encounters with the patients. Encountering patients in forensic psychiatry means coming face to face with suffering and the duality of caring, doing what is best for the patient and protecting society. Aim: The purpose of the study was to obtain a deeper understanding of encounters with patients with mental illness in forensic inpatient care as experienced by nurses. Method: This licentiate thesis consists of two studies (I, II), both conducted with a qualitative design. A total of 13 nurses working at a forensic psychiatric hospital in Sweden were recruited through a purposive sample to participate in the studies through narrative interviews. Study I was analysed with phenomenological hermeneutics in line with Lindseth and Norbergh (2004) in order to illuminate the lived experience of nurses’ encounters. Study II was a secondary supplementary analysis, which applied hermeneutics in line with Fleming, Gaidys, and Robb (2003) to gain a deeper understanding of nurses’ compassion in forensic psychiatry. The two studies were merged to provide a comprehensive understanding in this licentiate thesis. Findings: Study I illuminated the meaning of nurses’ lived experiences of encounters with patients with mental illnesses in forensic inpatient care, that is the nurses’ desire to do good despite being confronted with their own emotions as fear, humiliation, and disappointment. Encounters were also occasionally perceived as positive, awakening emotions of compassion, competence, pride, trust, satisfaction, and gratification regarding the patient’s recovery. However, a source of conflict was the struggle between doing what was best for the patient and protecting society. The study comprised of four themes: being frustrated, protecting oneself, being open-minded, and striving for control. Study II aimed to gain a deeper understanding of nurses’ compassion in providing forensic psychiatric inpatient care with three themes: recognising suffering and need for support, responding to patient suffering, and reacting to one’s own vulnerability. Abstracting to a main theme of being compassionate in forensic psychiatry which is described as an emotional journey, an ongoing inner negotiation between own vulnerability and expressions of suffering. This inner negotiation of making sense of patients’ plea and how they were perceived was crucial for determining the development of compassion rather than turning to control and rules as a means to protect oneself. Discussion: A interpretation of the studies (I, II) revealed two topics, being sensitive and responsive and keeping distance, which were reflected upon against the theoretical framework of Kari Martinsen. The studies showed that nurses faced a variety of encounters that forced them to face their own vulnerability and that trust could reduce power imbalances as well as help deal with societal, man-made constructs. The nurses’ encounters with incomprehensible expressions of suffering also show that nurses need to find a way to make room for “expressions of life”– taking a step back and turning their gaze inwards – in order to regulate their own emotions. This may better equip nurses to encounter patients with compassion and kindness rather than turning to norms and rules to protect themselves and guard their own vulnerability. Rather than distancing themselves from the patients, nurses can instead take a step back to come closer to their patients.

<p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2002</p> / digitalisering@umu

Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskor inom psykiatrisk vård kommer dagligen i kontakt med suicidnära patienter och är delaktiga i det suicidpreventiva arbetet. Studier beskriver att sjuksköterskor kan använda sig av sin kunskap, erfarenhet och intuition för att upptäcka att en patient är suicidal. Suicidavsikt kan kommuniceras icke verbalt genom subtila tecken, som kan uppfattas av sjuksköterskan. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av den icke verbala kommunikationen inför ett suicid, för att öka medvetenheten om och förståelsen av detta fenomen vid suicidprevention. Metod: Kvalitativ metod med fenomenologisk hermeneutisk ansats har använts. Sju sjuksköterskor verksamma inom psykiatrisk vård intervjuades om sina erfarenheter av det studerade fenomenet, där intervjumetoden var narrativ och ostrukturerad till sin form. Resultat: Sjuksköterskornas erfarenheter av fenomenet presenteras i sex teman: Att se en förändring hos patienten, Att uppleva patienten som svårtolkad, Att känna patientens existentiella ångest, Att förstå patienten utifrån en helhetssyn, Att se patienten få insikt samt Att uppfatta att patienten gör ett avslut. I den tolkade helhetsförståelsen ger teorier om suicid en djupare förståelse för fenomenet som beskrivs i temana. Konklusion: Sjuksköterskor inom psykiatrisk vård kan uppfatta och tolka icke verbala budskap från patienter som är suicidnära och de kan använda denna kunskap som ett komplement till en suicidbedömning.

Aim:  The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the development of a video-supported interactive learning model for movement awareness among nursing students. Methods:  Study I was a cross-sectional survey regarding prevalence and impact of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) among nursing students. In the remaining three studies a learning model was developed and explored; II - the inter-personal interaction (qualitative content analysis), III - the students’ experiences of using the learning model (phenomenological hermeneutics), IV - the students’ learning processes (hermeneutic approach). Results: 143 of the 224 respondents in study I reported MSS during the previous 12 months and of those 91 reported impact on physical daily life activities. The odds ratio for reporting MSS study year 3 was 4.7 (95% CI: 2.1 – 10.7). Study II shows that the students’ movement awareness and self-analysis developed when encountering their own movement through video feedback. Studies III and IV show that the facilitator’s reflective and responsive approach appears to be essential in creating interaction and a permitting learning atmosphere. The students became emotionally and cognitively challenged and personally engaged, were motivated to change by discovering details in their movements and gained a greater understanding of the relationship between their own movements and current or risk for future MSS. They also experienced emotional, cognitive and bodily confusion, which was interpreted as a necessary step in the changing process. Conclusion: MSS among nursing students appears to be a problem and education regarding ergonomic movements and principles is suggested to be emphasized in the nursing curriculum. The video-supported learning model enabled encountering and discovering one’s own body and movement in different ways, which facilitated reflection and motivation for change, which was supported by the facilitator’s reflective approach. The learning model, which could contribute to multifactorial ergonomic interventions, could also support movement awareness and learning in practical learning situations within education and rehabilitation. Further research needs to study the model in different contexts and in relation to MSS prevention.

<p>Det finns få vårdvetenskapliga studier av personer som lever med eller vårdas för olika former av förmakstakykardi. Det saknas även riktlinjer för sjuksköterskor hur de ska omhänderta patienter med förmakstakykardier i lika stor utsträckning som vid andra hjärtsjukdomar. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att beskriva innebörder att leva med och vårdas för förmakstakykardi. Studien har ett livsvärldsperspektiv och ett dialektiskt perspektiv på processen mellan vård och besvär. Data samlades in med kvalitativa intervjuer. Fyra män och tre kvinnor intervjuades. Datan analyserades med en fenomenologisk hermeneutisk metod enligt Lindseth och Norberg (2004). I resultatet belyses processen mellan vård och besvär av förmakstakykardi. Resultatet visar att patienter vars förmakstakykardi har gått över innan de kommer till sjukhus har svårt att få någon diagnos. Resultatet påvisar också att vården inte förser patienterna med den kunskap de behöver i sitt dagliga liv och att det är ett större problem för patienterna att takykardin återkommer än när den pågår. Om dessa aspekter inte tillgodoses så kan det uppstå ett vårdlidande.</p> / <p>There are few studies with a caring science perspective of people who lives or being cared for different forms of supraventricular tachycardia. There is also a lack in guidelines for nurses how to care for patients with supraventrikulär tachycardia in comparison with other heart conditions. The aim of this study is to describe meanings of living with and being under care for supraventricular tachycardia. The study has an lifeworld perspective and a dialectic perspective on the process between caring and inconvenience. Data was collected with qualitative interviews. Four men and three women where interviewed. The data was analyzed using an phenomenological hermeneutic method as described by Lindseth and Norberg (2004). The result enlightens the process between care and inconvenience of supraventricular tachycardia. The result shows that patients with a supraventricular tachycardia that ends before they reach the hospital have difficulties to be diagnosed. The result also points out that the given care dos not provide the patients with the knowledge they need in their daily life and it is a greater problem for the patients that the tachycardia returns then it is when its actually going on. Failing these aspects may inflict a suffering caused by care.</p>

<p>The study aims to demonstrate the significance of educators lived experiences of stimulating children's physical development. It has been noted that children are occupying themselves with more and more sedentary activities, which may lead to that they do not develop motor skills at the pace expected. To understand educators lived experiences from a phenomenological hermeneutic perspective empirical relevance has been collected through narrative interviews. The results shows that educators find it difficult to understand the Curriculum goals for motor activity and that the desire to stimulate motor development is great, but the realization is conspicuous by its absence. The discussion highlights educator’s commitment and motivation and the importance of being a reflecting practitioner.</p> / <p>Syftet med studien är att belysa innebörder i pedagogers levda erfarenheter av att stimulera barns motoriska utveckling. Det har uppmärksammats att barn sysselsätter sig med allt mer stillasittande aktiviteter, vilket kan leda till att elever inte utvecklar motoriken i den takt som förväntas. Empirin har samlats in genom narrativa intervjuer för att kunna tolka pedagogers levda erfarenheter ur ett fenomenologisk hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att pedagoger har svårt att tolka läroplanens mål för motoriken och att viljan till att stimulera till motorisk utveckling är stor, men handlandet lyser med sin frånvaro. Diskussionen belyser pedagogers engagemang och motivation samt vikten av att vara en reflekterande praktiker.</p>

The overall aim of this thesis is to illuminate meanings of being a co-worker, supervisor and closely connected to a person developing burnout, and to describe perceptions of signs preceding burnout. The thesis comprises four papers and is based on qualitative data. In papers I and II, the data material consisted of interviews with 15 female coworkers of a person developing burnout, in paper III, interviews with 12 supervisors to care providers suffering from burnout, and in paper IV, interviews on two occasions with 5 people closely connected to a person developing burnout. Thematic content analysis (I) and phenomenological-hermeneutic method (II, III, IV) was used to analyse/interpret the interview text. The findings show that the coworkers retrospectively recalled different signs preceding their workmate’s burnout. They describe that their workmate was struggling to manage alone and was showing self-sacrifice. Co-workers also describe that their workmates were struggling to achieve unattainable goals and were becoming distanced and isolated. Finally, the co-workers describe that their workmates were showing signs of falling apart (I). Meanings of being a female co-worker to a person developing burnout are struggling, on the one hand to understand and help the person with symptoms of burnout, and on the other to manage one’s own work. This burdensome situation means that the co-workers are filled with contradictory and frustrating feelings and when the workmate is finally sick-listed, troubled conscience arise in the coworkers (II). Meanings of being a supervisor for care providers suffering from burnout are struggling to help the care provider continue to work, but being responsible for the unit, the supervisors are forced to ensure that the work is carried out. As the situation proceeds, supervisors are trapped in a predicament, unable to help and feeling inadequate. When the care provider is sick-listed, feelings of self-blame arise. When the time comes for rehabilitation the supervisors are once again caught between conflicting demands in a seemingly impossible mission (III). Meanings of being closely connected to a person suffering from burnout are putting one’s life on hold in order to help the person, striving to stand by to the person developing burnout, regardless of one’s own needs. Those closely connected are saving the face of the person developing burnout in order to protect them from stress. As the situation proceeds, those closely connected carry the burden alone in this strained situation and sometimes they are treated with disrespect by the person developing burnout, a situation which reveals their own suffering. Striving to find recuperation engenders troubled conscience. This situation reveals a huge need for support for those closely connected to a person developing burnout (IV). The comprehensive understanding is that meanings of being a co-worker, supervisor and closely connected to a person developing burnout are, on the one hand, a complicated struggle to support the person and on the other to shoulder a heavy burden. They try to do everything they can to help and support the person developing burnout (II-IV), these attempts, however, do not seem to reach through (I-IV). Co-workers describe signs that something is the matter (I), but they (co-workers, supervisors and those closely connected) do not understand what is happening (IIIV). This burdensome situation is full of conflict for those involved, torn between the complicated struggle to support the person developing burnout and to manage this burdensome situation. Faced with their own shortcomings, troubled conscience arises. The comprehensive understanding of the four papers (I-IV) are discussed and reflected on with the help of social support theories and the ideas of the Danish philosopher Lögstrup’s thoughts about the ethical demand.

The aim of the present study is to analyze and compare the representation of the guerrilla soldier in six contemporary Central American novels. According to Claudio Guillén, the comparison is a dialogue between unity and diversity. It can be defined with the help of two coordinates: a spatial and a temporal. In this study the spatial coordinate includes Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and the temporal extends from the mid-seventies to the eighties. The novels written in the seventies are Los compañeros (1976) by Marco Antonio Flores, ¿Te dio miedo la sangre? (1977) by Sergio Ramírez and Caperucita en la zona roja (1977) by Manlio Argueta. The ones written in the eighties are La mujer habitada (1988) by Gioconda Belli, La diáspora (1989) by Horacio Castellanos Moya and El hombre de Montserrat (1994) by Dante Liano. The novels are analyzed from a postcolonial perspective following the ideas of Alfonso de Toro and Santiago Castro-Gómez particularly. The method used is the phenomenological hermeneutics, as proposed by Mario J. Valdés. This implies an analysis performed on four levels: historical, formal, phenomenological and hermeneutic. Two of the key aspects in the analysis are the reader's aesthetic identification with the hero and the postcolonial concept subaltern. The main conclusion is that the representation of the guerrilla soldier in the corpus is very heterogeneous and that almost no protagonist can be considered a subaltern. The reader's identification with the guerrilla soldier ranges from admirative to ironic, though the main type is sympathetic. Hence, the representation may be considered a hybrid, using a term borrowed from anthropologist Néstor García Canclini that opposes binary schemes and essentialist thinking. The guerrilla soldier is regarded as an individual and not as an abstract idea, which indicates that the civil wars in Central America were not just a conflict between two ideologies, but above all a human experience.

Det finns få vårdvetenskapliga studier av personer som lever med eller vårdas för olika former av förmakstakykardi. Det saknas även riktlinjer för sjuksköterskor hur de ska omhänderta patienter med förmakstakykardier i lika stor utsträckning som vid andra hjärtsjukdomar. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att beskriva innebörder att leva med och vårdas för förmakstakykardi. Studien har ett livsvärldsperspektiv och ett dialektiskt perspektiv på processen mellan vård och besvär. Data samlades in med kvalitativa intervjuer. Fyra män och tre kvinnor intervjuades. Datan analyserades med en fenomenologisk hermeneutisk metod enligt Lindseth och Norberg (2004). I resultatet belyses processen mellan vård och besvär av förmakstakykardi. Resultatet visar att patienter vars förmakstakykardi har gått över innan de kommer till sjukhus har svårt att få någon diagnos. Resultatet påvisar också att vården inte förser patienterna med den kunskap de behöver i sitt dagliga liv och att det är ett större problem för patienterna att takykardin återkommer än när den pågår. Om dessa aspekter inte tillgodoses så kan det uppstå ett vårdlidande. / There are few studies with a caring science perspective of people who lives or being cared for different forms of supraventricular tachycardia. There is also a lack in guidelines for nurses how to care for patients with supraventrikulär tachycardia in comparison with other heart conditions. The aim of this study is to describe meanings of living with and being under care for supraventricular tachycardia. The study has an lifeworld perspective and a dialectic perspective on the process between caring and inconvenience. Data was collected with qualitative interviews. Four men and three women where interviewed. The data was analyzed using an phenomenological hermeneutic method as described by Lindseth and Norberg (2004). The result enlightens the process between care and inconvenience of supraventricular tachycardia. The result shows that patients with a supraventricular tachycardia that ends before they reach the hospital have difficulties to be diagnosed. The result also points out that the given care dos not provide the patients with the knowledge they need in their daily life and it is a greater problem for the patients that the tachycardia returns then it is when its actually going on. Failing these aspects may inflict a suffering caused by care.