No abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the experiences of family members in their role of relative in a situation where a next of kin has been admitted to hospital. The questionnaire was used in data collection. The data reported here are from a pilot study. The sample consisted of 70 family members of patients receiving treatment on the neurological wards. It was found that family members spent a lot of time at their relative's bedside, most of them up to several hours a day. The daily routines of families and way of life were also very much affected. The most important way in which the hospital supported families was to keep them informed about the patient's care and treatment. However, this was not possible without an active interest and involvement on the part of family members themselves. There were obvious problems and shortcomings in terms of family orientation: only one third of the family members felt that the nursing staff were seriously interested in the family's well-being, and only one quarter had been told what they could do in hospital. About half of the family members needed to meet nurses to get support from nurses and over one third from doctors. The oldest respondents and women needed more help than did others. Men preferred to turn to doctors rather than nurses for help. In general family members had good experiences of visiting their relative in hospital. They believed that they were expected and that they were of help to their relative. Over half of the family members said they were actively involved in caring for their relative. Only four per cent of the family members reported bad experiences of their visits to hospital, in spite of the obvious shortcomings in family nursing. For this reason it is important that nurses facilitate the involvement and integration of relatives in the process of nursing.

A family is a complex system and research with families need flexible, sensitive and practical methods. Family research should also aim at developing new methods for data collection and analysis.

Chronic illness in one family member influences all aspects of family life. Research has documented the positive contributions of social support in an unexpected and stressful event such as a family member's heart disease. The aim of the study was to describe in-hospital social support provided by nurses to families of heart patients and to identify factors related to social support. Data were collected using a mailed questionnaire to family members of heart patients (n = 161) receiving treatment on two medical wards of a university hospital in southern Finland. The results show that the family members were not very satisfied with the social support from nurses, because about 40% were dissatisfied with the concrete aid and affirmation they received and about 30% with emotional support. According to regression analysis the most important predictors of social support were family structure, patient's age, gender of family member and whether the patient had been hospitalized for cardiac symptoms. This report shows that supporting families of cardiac patients need development according to the family nursing practice.

Family functioning of families with heart patients can be supported and developed by family nursing, e.g. concrete aid from nurses. Other aspects of support, e.g. consideration of family member's age and knowledge of health issues also need to be further considered and studied as the basis of care.

The findings suggest that supporting family functioning in the families of people with heart disease is an important challenge for family nursing.

A methodological study was conducted to test the psychometric properties of the Family Functioning, Health, and Social Support (FAFHES) Instrument to be used with families of heart patients. A total of 109 initial items were developed based on knowledge generated by three Finnish academic dissertations concerning family functioning, health, and social support provided by nurses. Data were collected from family members of 161 heart patients. Principal component analysis was performed in each of three total scales: family functioning, family health, and social support. The scales had acceptable reliability (alpha coefficients ranged from .73 to .95). Internal consistency reliability and content validity of the FAFHES have initial support. Results obtained from this study support that this instrument is ready for use in research in which the investigator wishes to measure social support associated with family functioning and the health of families of heart patients.

The finding of this study show that peer supervision benefited nurse managers in quality management through reflection and support. The reflective and supportive characteristics of peer supervision promoted the nurse managers' individual development, but also that of leadership. It can be concluded that peer supervision promotes quality management in nurse managers' work.