Background and objectives: This paper addresses psychological resilience, a multidisciplinary theoretical construct with important practical implications for health sciences. Although many definitions have been proposed in several contexts, an essential understanding of the concept is still lacking up to now. This negatively affects comparisons among research results and makes objective measurement difficult. The aim of this review is to identify shared elements in defining the construct of resilience across the literature examined in order to move toward a conceptual unification of the term. Materials and methods: A literature review was performed using the electronic databases ‘PubMed’ and ‘PsycINFO’. Scientific studies written in English between 2002 and May 2019 were included according to the following key terms: ‘Psychological’, ‘resilience’, and ‘definition’. Results: The review identifies five macro-categories that summarize what has been reported in the recent literature concerning the resilience phenomenon. They serve as a preliminary and necessary step toward a conceptual clarification of the construct. Conclusions: We propose a definition of psychological resilience as the ability to maintain the persistence of one’s orientation towards existential purposes. It constitutes a transversal attitude that can be understood as the ability to overcome the difficulties experienced in the different areas of one’s life with perseverance, as well as good awareness of oneself and one’s own internal coherence by activating a personal growth project. The conceptual clarification proposed will contribute to improving the accuracy of research on this topic by suggesting future paths of investigation aimed at deeply exploring the issues surrounding the promotion of resilience resources.

This study supports the need to identify documentation systems that are easy to complete. Moreover, nursing education should pay more attention to the competences in the field of holistic care and patient education.

The increasing use of messaging applications such as WhatsApp for both social and personal purposes has determined an increase in the widespread use of these technologies, even in healthcare. A growing number of healthcare professionals have adopted WhatsApp in their daily work in order to share information with peers and patients. Past research has highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of WhatsApp usage in healthcare settings; in particular two positions appear to coexist in the scientific debate: those that expose and underline all of the positive aspects of the phenomenon, and those which also highlight the negative aspects, linked in particular to the clinical risks for patients, data security and privacy protection. The main objective of this study was to assess if and how individual and organizational determinants can trigger or inhibit the use of WhatsApp in a hospital setting, and which variables managers can exploit to guide professionals’ behaviors. Data were collected through a survey administered to physicians and nurses in an Italian University Hospital in Rome; a total of 191 high-quality responses were received. The results show that WhatsApp is widely used in the Hospital, and that its use is mainly due to the perception of numerous advantages and benefits reported in clinical practice. Moreover, an interplay exists between organizational and individual factors in determining the use of WhatsApp between healthcare professionals and with patients. In particular, individual factors play a key role as determinants of the use of WhatsApp; healthcare professionals use this technology mainly based on its perceived usefulness. Instead, organizational factors play a secondary role; they do not have a direct influence on the use of WhatsApp, but always act through individual factors. This study is the first to analyses the influence of individual and organizational determinants of WhatsApp usage in the hospital setting, and provides hospital managers with important information in order to manage this phenomenon and implement adequate strategies to exploit its potential increase.

PurposeTo understand how different methodologies of qualitative research are able to capture patient experience of the hospital journey.MethodsA qualitative study of orthopaedic patients admitted for hip and knee replacement surgery in a 250-bed university hospital was performed. Eight patients were shadowed from the time they entered the hospital to the time of transfer to rehabilitation. Four patients and sixteen professionals, including orthopaedists, head nurses, nurses and administrative staff, were interviewed.ResultsThrough analysis of the data collected four main themes emerged: the information gap; the covering patient-professionals relationship; the effectiveness of family closeness; and the micro-integration of hospital services. The three different standpoints (patient shadowing, health professionals’ interviews and patients’ interviews) allowed different issues to be captured in the various phases of the journey.ConclusionsHospitals can significantly improve the quality of the service provided by exploring and understanding the individual patient journey. When dealing with a key cross-functional business process, the time-space dynamics of the activities performed have to be considered. Further research in the academic field can explore practical, methodological and ethical challenges more deeply in capturing the whole patient journey experience by using multiple methods and integrated tools.

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Aim: To explore predictors of perceived nursing workload in relation to patients, nurses and workflow.Background: Nursing workload is important to health care organisations. It determines nurses' well-being and quality of care. Nevertheless, its predictors are barely studied.Methods: A cross-sectional prospective design based on the complex adaptive systems theory was used. An online survey asked nurses to describe perceived workload at the end of every shift. Data were gathered from five medical-surgical wards over three consecutive weeks. We received 205 completed surveys and tested multivariate regression models.Results: Patient acuity, staffing resources, patient transfers, documentation, patient isolation, unscheduled activities and patient specialties were significant in predicting perceived workload. Nurse-to-patient ratio proved not to be a predictor of workload.Conclusions: This study significantly contributed to literature by identifying some workload predictors. Complexity of patient care, staffing adequacy and some workflow aspects were prominent in determining the shift workload among nurses.Implications for nursing management: Our findings provide valuable information for top and middle hospital management, as well as for policymakers. Identification of predictors and measurement of workload are essential for optimizing staff resources, workflow processes and work environment. Future research should focus on the appraisal of more determinants.

Aims: To develop and validate a comprehensive tool based on those established in the field capable of reflecting the broader concept of Unfinished Nursing Care. Background: Different tools have been established in the field of Missed Care, Rationing Care and Tasks Left Undone. However, despite them sharing similar items and all referring to the common concept of Unfinished Nursing Care, no attempts to