Biomedical subjects

Pádraig Mac Neela

Publications and source records attributed to Pádraig Mac Neela.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Towards a nursing minimum data set for Ireland: making Irish nursing visible.

AIM: The aim of this study was to identify patient problems, nursing interventions and nursing outcomes to be included in a nursing minimum data set for Ireland. BACKGROUND: In 2002, a research programme funded by the Irish Health Research Board, was established to develop and test a nursing minimum data set to capture the nursing contribution to patient care in Ireland. A nursing minimum data set is comprised of the smallest number of information items required to capture the range of patient problems, nursing interventions and nursing outcomes recorded by nurses on a regular basis. Nursing minimum data sets have been developed in several countries for a range of applications such as workforce planning, financing nursing care, examining patient profiles and forecasting trends in nursing diagnoses. METHOD: Eleven focus groups were conducted with 59 registered general nurses to explore their conceptualizations of patient problems, nursing interventions and nursing outcomes. In addition, data relating to nurses' recordings of patient problems, nursing interventions and nursing outcomes were collected from a sample of 45 sets nursing records. The research took place between January 2003 and April 2004. FINDINGS: A range of patient problems, nursing interventions and outcomes were identified that were similar to those found in existing nursing minimum data sets. However, several new items and categories of items were also identified, justifying the empirical approach taken to generate the initial list of items. Data from nursing records supported several points raised in focus groups and also highlighted some inconsistencies between nurses' perceptions and recordings of what they do. CONCLUSION: Our research identified several new types of indirect interventions and managing/organizing activities in addition to items found in existing nursing minimum data sets. The importance of these aspects of the nursing contribution to patient care will be tested further in the development of the Irish nursing minimum data set.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Nursing minimum data sets: a conceptual analysis and review.

It is commonly acknowledged that nursing care is underrepresented in the healthcare record. The nursing minimum data set (NMDS) has been proposed as a method of routinely collecting information on core aspects of the nursing contribution to care, organised primarily in terms of phenomena, interventions and outcomes. Potential applications in clinical nursing, healthcare management, education and research have been identified. NMDS systems have been developed in a number of countries, with applications mostly related to resource allocation. To date, NMDS systems have tended to examine physical nursing care provided in institutional settings, with implications for construct and content validity. While NMDS research helps to clarify the nursing contribution to care, attention is now required to better understand the domains of nursing care across a broader range of care settings.

Australia↗

PubMed2006

Developing a data dictionary for the irish nursing minimum dataset.

One of the challenges in health care in Ireland is the relatively slow acceptance of standardised clinical information systems. Yet the national Irish health reform programme indicates that an Electronic Health Care Record (EHCR) will be implemented on a phased basis. [3-5]. While nursing has a key role in ensuring the quality and comparability of health information, the so- called 'invisibility' of some nursing activities makes this a challenging aim to achieve [3-5]. Any integrated health care system requires the adoption of uniform standards for electronic data exchange [1-2]. One of the pre-requisites for uniform standards is the composition of a data dictionary. Inadequate definition of data elements in a particular dataset hinders the development of an integrated data depository or electronic health care record (EHCR). This paper outlines how work on the data dictionary for the Irish Nursing Minimum Dataset (INMDS) has addressed this issue. Data set elements were devised on the basis of a large scale empirical research programme. ISO 18104, the reference terminology for nursing [6], was used to cross-map the data set elements with semantic domains, categories and links and data set items were dissected.

Databases as Topic↗

PubMed2005

Social regulation, medicalisation and the nurse's role: insights from an analysis of nursing documentation.

BACKGROUND: Medicine is recognised as a dominant source of governmentality and social regulation, and although nursing has been implicated in the same process, analytical work in this area has been sparse. OBJECTIVES: The article aims to present an analysis of nursing records in order to understand the structural and social processes that mediate the texts. METHODS: 45 sets of nursing records drawn from four clinical sites in Ireland were subjected to a discourse analysis. RESULTS: This article focuses on two main themes that were derived from data: (i) the manner in which nurses controlled, regulated and invigilated patients' activities of daily living and (ii) the way in which activities of daily living were mediated by a biomedical worldview in the clinical settings. Through the organising framework of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), normative social practices relating to hygiene, eating and drinking, sleeping and so forth were surveyed and monitored within clinical settings. We construct qualitative categories around a range of ways that nurses assessed and judged patients' capacities at ADLs. Furthermore, it is argued that the framework of ADLs epitomises the medicalisation of normative social practices, whereupon the most mundane of normal functions become redefined as an actual or potential clinical pathology, legitimating nursing interventions. According to the nursing documentation, biochemical interventions in the form of various medications were the most dominant means through which nurses attempted to restore or improve the functional capacity of an ADL. CONCLUSION: We conclude by proposing that nurses' invigilation of patients' ADLs is not necessarily a repressive feature of nursing practice, but rather has the potential to be used to advocate on patients' behalf in certain circumstances.

Activities of Daily Living↗