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Biomedical subjects

S Sinkkonen

Publications and source records attributed to S Sinkkonen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Informal caregivers' participation in elderly-patient care: an interrupted time-series study.

This study is an evaluation of a project in Finland that aimed to promote the participation of informal caregivers in the hospital care of elderly patients. The staff who worked in the wards that were studied built up activation programmes for informal caregivers, and changed ward policies to encourage caregivers' participation. To explore changes in caregivers' participation in the study and the control wards, non-equivalent control groups were used. During periods of two months in 1991, 1992 and 1993, the data were collected from informal caregivers (N = 369) using a structured questionnaire. The results indicated that total participation of informal caregivers in daily activities increased in long-term care settings, but not in the university hospital. However, a small increase in informal caregivers' participation in some daily activities of elderly patients took place in the study wards of each setting. The findings and implications for nursing are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2000

Polychlorinated organic compounds in the Arctic cod liver: trends and profiles.

Polychlorinated organic compounds (POCs) have been measured in Arctic cod liver from Vestertana Fjord for a period of 1987-1998. Significant decrease was observed for DDD (p = 0.043), alpha-HCH (p = 0.001), and gamma-HCH (lindane; p = 0.001). Contents of DDE, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran, PCBs, chlordanes, chloronaphthalenes, hexachlorobenzene and polychlorodiphenyl ethers had no significant trend. Contents of three hexa- and two heptachlorodibenzofurans and octachlorodibenzofuran increased slightly from 1987 to 1994, but then at very high rate from 1994 to 1998. Trends of HCHs, profiles of PCBs and levels of chlordanes are in accordance with atmospheric long range transport. The hexa-, hepta- and octachlorodibenzofurans observed are major impurities in chlorophenol formulation Ky-5, which has been used as wood preservative and as fungicide/slimicide in industrial processes. Their profile in Vestertana cod was similar to that observed in Ky-5 contaminated fish.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Nursing and social work students' initial orientation towards their studies.

The worldwide rapid social and economic changes also give challenges to health and social policies. Nowadays there is a need for integration of health and social services and self-managed work teams, which can improve the quality of services offered to clients. This is especially a challenge to nursing and social work education. One approach to respond to this challenge is to develop students' self-direction during training. Today self-direction is one of the central principles in adult learning, as one of its aims is to prepare students to manage changes in society. In this study, nursing (n = 68) and social work (n = 71) students' orientation towards their studies was investigated at the beginning of their professional education. The data were collected by a questionnaire developed for the study. The results suggest that, in general, both nursing and social work students are orientated actively towards their studies. However, nursing students were less willing to participate in planning their studies than were social work students. Moreover, nursing students were more teacher-directed than social work students.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Quality of elderly-patient care: an interrupted time series study.

This study is part of a project that aimed to increase the participation of informal caregivers in the hospital care for elderly patients. The staff who worked in the wards that were studied created activity programmes for caregivers and changed their ward policies to encourage the participation of the caregivers. In addition, quality assurance programmes were developed and primary nursing was introduced to ensure individualized, need-based and family centered care. In order to explore the changes in perceived quality of care, and to test the differences in care quality between the study and the control wards (i.e. two wards in a university hospital, two wards in a geriatric unit and two wards of a nursing home), the interrupted time series with a non-equivalent control group time series design was used. During periods of 2 months in 1991, 1992 and 1993 the data were collected from elderly patients (n = 97) and their informal caregivers (n = 369) using a structured questionnaire based on need theories. The results indicated that the quality of care was improved, especially in the study wards of the university hospital and of the nursing home. This care quality measure was found to be a useful tool for getting feedback from patients and their caregivers concerning care given. Aspects of nursing practice that needed to be improved were identified (i.e. poor communication between the patient, their caregiver and staff, and lack of support to the patient and caregiver by staff).

Aged↗
PubMed1992

[Current and future work roles of hospital nursing directors].

This study has three aims: 1) to examine the present role of hospital nurse directors; 2) to find out what changes will occur in their role in the near future; and 3) to explore what their future role should be. The data were collected by a means of a mail questionnaire in winter 1990 from 50 nurse directors and 42 chief physicians of departments and 50 head nurses of wards from five Finnish university hospitals and from five other large acute hospitals. The nurse directors assessed their present role as being the most active and the head nurses as the least active in the examined 27 leadership functions. Largest differences were found in the evaluation of the hospital nurse directors' present role between the nurse directors themselves and the head nurses. However, in respect to the future work role the head nurses and nurse directors had rather similar expectations. Both emphasized research and development of the nursing staff and nursing care. The chief physicians thought that nurse directors should concentrate more on the internal leadership functions of the hospitals such as personnel management, solving the conflicts between the staff and performing routine functions of personnel management. The nurse directors themselves emphasized the external functions of hospitals in their present and future work role, such as networking and negotiations outside the hospitals and financial management. The differences in the evaluations of the present role and in the expectations concerning the future role of nurse directors indicate conflicting views between the the three groups. All respondents perceived nurse directors as being important and needed in hospitals. They also considered that non-nurses cannot function as directors of nursing services.

Clinical Nursing Research↗
PubMed1985

A programme for developing nurses' skills and nursing practice.

In this paper we describe a programme for developing nursing care for patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and report some results of a study in which applicability and effectiveness of this programme were evaluated. To investigate how the programme influenced nursing practice, nurses' readiness (knowledge, skills, motivation, accountability) to provide care for MI patients was followed for 2 years. Data for the evaluation were collected by questionnaires from three categories of nurses, by analysing nursing documents before and 1 and 2 years after the programme started, and by keeping a continuous diary. This programme made an impact on many variables that measure changes in nursing practice and nurses' readiness to provide care. The implications of this programme for nursing practice, research, education and administration are discussed.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Motivational patterns of management team members in a large hospital.

Management teams have been introduced as a means of solving conflicts and providing highly required co-ordination between professional groups, sub-units and their individual leaders in large, complex organizations such as hospitals. This study examines the motivational patterns of the three members of management teams of four clinical departments at a large university hospital. A strong professionalism was the dominant motivational orientation of all nurse managers (nursing directors of the clinics) and to a great extent also of the physician managers (head physicians of the clinics). The business managers' dominant motivational pattern was hierarchy in two out of the four teams, and professionalism in two teams. The respective comparison groups had rather similar motivational patterns in common with their leaders: ordinary physicians and nurses had a professional and administrative staff hierarchic orientation. The comparison group of mid-level managers from private firms was also hierarchically oriented, although task orientation was also often high in their motivational pattern. The results are consistent with the educational background and differences in the tasks of the groups studied. The role of different professional cultures in determining and designing efficiently functioning management teams is an important task for further research.

Conflict, Psychological↗