Aims and objectives: To identify the most common serious adverse events that occurred in nursing homes and their most frequent contributing factors to the improvement of safe nursing care.Background: There is a need to improve safe nursing care in nursing homes. Resi-

Demanding conditions in acute psychiatric wards inhibit provision of safe, therapeutic care and leave nurses torn between humanistic ideals and the harsh reality of their daily work. The aim of this study was to describe nurses' caring approaches within this context. Data were collected from interviews with nurses working in acute psychiatric intensive care. Data were analysed using qualitative analysis, based on interpretive description. Results revealed a caring-approach continuum on which two approaches formed the main themes: the bulldozer and the ballet dancer. The bulldozer approach functioned as a shield of power that protected the ward from chaos. The ballet dancer approach functioned as a means of initiating relationships with patients. When examining the data from a theoretical perspective of caring and uncaring encounters in nursing, the ballet dancer approach was consistent with a caring approach, while the bulldozer approach was more complex and somewhat aligned with uncaring approaches. Conclusions drawn from the study are that although the bulldozer approach involves a risk for uncaring and harming actions, it also brings a potential for caring. This potential needs to be further explored and nurses should be encouraged to reflect on how they integrate paternalistic nursing styles with person-centred care.

1. A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach was used to illuminate carers' video-recorded interactions in connection with supervision for individualized nursing care. 2. In order to disclose any changes in the carers' interactions with patients suffering from severe dementia the video recordings were conducted before, during and after the intervention. 3. The content of the videos was transcribed as a text, mainly verbal communication. Due to the rich data the videos and text were kept together as a whole in every step of the analysis. 4. After an initial naïve understanding, different subthemes emerged in the structural analyses: promoting competence, struggling for co-operation, deep communication for communion, showing respect for the unique person, skills in balancing power, distance in a negative point of view, and fragmentary nursing situations. 5. The overall theme was 'Carers' balancing in their interactions, verbal as well as non-verbal, to promote a sense of mutual togetherness with the patient'. 6. The supervision intervention contributed to an improvement in carers' skills in balancing in their interactions. In the caring process carers' and patients' shared experiences and, due to patients' disabilities, interactions depended mainly on carers' qualities and capabilities for this confirming nursing care.

Violence prevention and management is an important part of inpatient psychiatric nursing and specific staff training is regarded essential. The training should be based on primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. In Stockholm, Sweden, the Bergen model is a staff-training programme that combines this preventive approach with the theoretical nursing framework of the City model that includes three staff factors: positive appreciation of patients, emotional regulation and effective structure. We evaluated this combination of the Bergen and City models on the violence prevention and management climate in psychiatric inpatient wards. A 13-item questionnaire was developed and distributed to patients and staff in 41 wards before the staff was trained and subsequently to 19 of these wards after training. Data analyses included factor analysis, Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U-test. The result showed that the staff on trained wards had a more positive perception of four of the items and the patients of one item. These items reflected causes of patient aggression, ward rules, the staff's emotional regulation and early interventions. The findings suggest that a focus on three levels of prevention within a theoretical nursing framework may promote a more positive violence prevention and management climate on wards.

Knowing a patient's life story is important for good nursing care of frail and vulnerable elderly people with cognitive impairments. The aim of the study was to compare patients' life stories and current situations as told by carers before and after 1 year of supervision, in which the Resident Assessment Instrument was used as a basis for individualized nursing care. Qualitative content analysis was used to disclose changes and to enable descriptions of patterns. After the intervention, two overall perspectives emerged from the analysis: the patient as a unique person with resources and abilities, despite limitations, and the carers' awareness of their own professional approach. It seemed as if the supervision and the use of a comprehensive and detailed assessment tool contributed to increased knowledge about the patients and to efforts to see them as real persons behind the dementia surface.