The aim of this study was to describe a nurse-led rheumatology clinic's impact on empowering patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory disease that attacks many joints, causing considerable functional restrictions for patients. Consequently, these patients are dependent on a wide variety of health-care services. A descriptive, qualitative design inspired by phenomenography was chosen. The conceptions were collected through interviews with 16 strategically selected patients with RA. Three descriptive categories comprising eight conceptions emerged: teaching (gaining insight and receiving information), regular review (receiving security, realizing regularity, and achieving accessibility), and attention (getting a holistic assessment, receiving coordinated care, and getting sufficient time). A nurse-led rheumatology clinic can be a source for empowering patients with RA to adopt new stances to alternative actions and achieve a higher level of faith in their own abilities.

BackgroundChildren with cancer undergo intensive and long treatment periods that expose them and their families to a number of difficult physical, mental, and social challenges. Empowering children by actively involving them in their care can help them to cope with these challenges. It can, however, be difficult for children to be involved and talk about their illness experiences in a “traditional” conversation with health care professionals, especially for younger children. Sisom (Norwegian acronym “Si det som det er” or “Tell it how it is”) is an interactive computer-based assessment and communication tool to give children (aged 6-12 years) with cancer a “voice” in their care. Because of technological advances and widespread use of mobile devices Sisom had to be redesigned to better meet the needs of children of today.ObjectiveTo redesign Sisom for use on mobile devices and to validate and adapt it for use in a Swedish population of children with cancer.MethodsA user-experience design was used. Content adaptation included forward-backward translation by Swedish and Norwegian translators. Healthy children (n=5), children with experiences of cancer treatment (n=5) and their parents (n=5), and pediatric nurses (n=2) were then involved in culturally adapting Sisom to the Swedish context. The iterative low- and high-fidelity evaluation was supported by a think aloud method, semistructured interviews, and drawings to capture children’s views of Sisom. The redesign and evaluation continued until no further changes or improvements were identified by the participants or the researchers.ResultsChildren, parents, and pediatric nurses offered many suggestions for improvements to the original version in terms of content, aesthetics, and usability of Sisom. The most significant change that emerged through user input was a modification that entailed not using problem-focused statements in the assessment items. The parents and pediatric nurses considered the revised assessment items to be general and less diagnosis specific. The evaluation of aesthetics resulted in brighter colors and more positive and exciting details in the animations. The evaluation of usability included improvements of the verbal instructions on how to navigate in Sisom 2, and also that the answers to assessment items in Sisom 2 should be saved to provide the children with the option to pause and to continue answering the remaining assessment items at a later stage.ConclusionsOverall, this paper describes the process of using user-experience design with children in order to redesign and validate an interactive assessment and communication tool and how the outcomes of this process resulted in a new version, Sisom 2. All participants confirmed the usability and qualities of using the final version. Future research should be directed toward the implementation of Sisom 2 in clinical practice and to evaluate outcomes from individual and organizational levels.

Nurse anaesthetists need to acquire knowledge and develop strategies for providing preparatory visits and information to children prior to surgery as well as reducing waiting times and creating environments with meaningful and tailored opportunities for distraction in perioperative care.

Children's right to participate in their own healthcare has increasingly become highlighted in national and international research as well as in government regulations. Nevertheless, children's participation in healthcare is unsatisfactorily applied in praxis. There is a growing body of research regarding children's participation, but research from the children's own perspective is scarce. The aim of this study was thus to explore the experiences and preferences for participation in healthcare situations among children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) as a foundation for creating strategies to promote their participation in pediatric healthcare. Twenty children, aged 8 to 17 years, with JIA were interviewed individually and in focus groups. In order to increase the children's opportunities to express their own experiences, different interview techniques were used, such as draw-and-tell and role play with dolls. The analysis was conducted with a constructivist grounded theory. The result explores children's perspective of influencing processes promoting their participation in healthcare situations. The core category that emerged was, “Releasing fear and uncertainty opens up for confidence and participation,” and the categories related to the core category are, “surrounded by a sense of security and comfort,” and “strengthened and supported to become involved.” In conclusion, the knowledge gained in this study offers new insights from the perspective of children themselves, and can constitute a valuable contribution to the understanding of necessary conditions for the development of specific interventions that promote participation among children in healthcare situations.