Nurses are actively involved in disease management and self-management support as well as in promoting self-care in healthy and sick people. Referring to a model on self-care and related concepts could avoid misinterpretations in nursing practice, research, and policy.

Despite the development of several instruments to assess self-care in the adult population, no instrument can be fully recommended to clinical nurses and researchers. Further studies of high methodological quality are needed to confirm the measurement properties of these instruments.

Background Wound care nurses are recognised as a key element for improving health outcomes. However, there is still fragmented knowledge of the outcomes associated with their practice in individuals with pressure ulcers. Aims and objectives To identify, summarise and map all available evidence related to the outcomes of wound care nurses’ practice in individuals with pressure ulcers. Design Integrative literature review. Review method To report the review, we followed the modified version of Cooper's five‐step methodology, and the PRISMA guidelines. Methods The search was carried out on CINAHL, PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Scopus, with a time frame ranging from each database inception to December 21, 2019. We included observational or experimental studies of adult individuals affected by (or at risk of) developing pressure ulcers who were also cared for by wound care nurses. Results Of the 439 peer‐reviewed publications, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. The most frequent outcomes were pressure ulcer incidence, healing rate and time taken for complete healing. Less frequent outcomes were changes in pressure ulcers’ stage, number of completely healed wounds, treatment costs and physical discomfort. No patient‐reported outcomes were assessed. Conclusion This review indicates that clinical‐related outcomes were by far the most reported. Future studies should broaden the spectrum of outcomes to include more subjective parameters (e.g. pain, quality of life, stress, etc.), in order to gain a better understanding of the global impact of wound care practice on patients with pressure ulcers. Relevance to clinical practice There is promising evidence of a positive impact of wound care nurses’ practice on health and economic outcomes. Nonetheless, more robust and rigorous research is needed to provide stronger evidence in the field and support investment in these practitioners.

Background Because of the importance of a dyadic approach, it is necessary to conduct a systematic review to identify which dyadic intervention could be implemented for stroke survivor–caregiver dyads after discharge from the rehabilitation hospital to improve outcomes. Aims The aims were to systematically review the evidence to identify which dyadic interventions have been implemented in stroke survivor–caregiver dyads to improve stroke survivor–caregiver dyads’ outcomes and to analyse, through a meta-analysis, which intervention was found to be the most effective. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted using the following electronic databases: PubMed, CINAHL and PsycInfo. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCT studies published within the last 10 years were included. Quantitative data were extracted from papers included in the review using the standardized data extraction tool from JBI-MAStARI. Pooled effects were analysed between the experimental and control groups for each outcome. Results Sixteen studies involving 2997 stroke survivors (male gender=58%) and 2187 caregivers (male gender=25%) were included in this review. In 16 studies, which were subdivided into three quasi-RCTs and 13 RCTs, the application of dyadic interventions for stroke survivors and caregivers was systematically reviewed, but only a few of these identified a significant improvement in the stroke survivors’ and caregivers’ outcomes of its intervention group. Dyadic interventions showed a significant effect on stroke survivors’ physical functioning ( p=0.05), memory ( p<0.01) and quality of life ( p=0.01) and on caregivers’ depression ( p=0.05). Conclusions This study provides moderate support for the use of a dyadic intervention to improve stroke survivors’ physical functioning, memory and quality of life and caregiver depression.

Aim.  This paper reports a study testing the validity and reliability of the Italian version of the Kogan Attitude towards Older People scale. Background.  Nursing students’ attitudes towards older people can affect their preference for working with them. One of the most common instruments used to assess these attitudes is the Kogan Attitude towards Older People scale. Previous validation studies performed on college students internationally have demonstrated good reliability and validity. The psychometric properties of the Italian version have not yet been tested. Design.  A cross‐sectional, descriptive study. Method.  The study was conducted from March–June 2010 with a convenience sample of nursing students attending two Italian universities. Reliability was evaluated using internal consistency and item‐to‐total correlation. Content and construct validity were evaluated using a content validity index and principal factor analysis. Results.  A total of 1637 nursing students participated in the study. Two factors were extracted from the factor analysis: prejudice describing a negative disposition and appreciation indicating a favourable feeling and opinion towards older people. Conclusion.  The Kogan Attitude towards Older People scale applied to Italian nursing students exhibited good internal consistency. The two‐dimensional construct of the scale was congruent with some, but not all, results of previous studies due to methodological differences among the studies. Based on the study findings, the scale can be recommended for future research studies in Italy including use as pre/post‐test measurement associated with nursing education programmes.