Knowledge translation in family nursing: does a short-term therapeutic conversation intervention benefit families of children and adolescents in a hospital setting? Findings from the Landspitali University Hospital Family Nursing Implementation Project.
In an effort to examine translation of family nursing knowledge to practice, the Landspitali University Hospital Family Nursing Implementation Project (2007-2011), was thoughtfully initiated in Reykjavik, Iceland and systematically evaluated. The mission was to implement family nursing in every department of the hospital. This publication is the first formal research report from this landmark project. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a short-term therapeutic conversation intervention with families who were receiving health care services at the Children's Hospital at Landspitali University Hospital in Iceland related to childhood and adolescent acute and chronic illnesses. The therapeutic conversation was guided by Family Systems Nursing and used the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models (Wright & Leahey, 2005, 2009). Families (N = 76) were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (short-term therapeutic conversation: n = 41) or to a control group (traditional care: n = 35). Parents in the experimental group reported significantly higher family support after the intervention, compared to the parents in the control group. Differences were noted between families experiencing acute versus chronic illnesses. Recommendations are made for conducting and designing intervention research with families experiencing the hospitalization of a child or adolescent.
School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Nursing, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. eks@hi.is
Erla Kolbrun
EK
Svavarsdottir
Gudny Bergthora
GB
Tryggvadottir
Anna Olafia
AO
Sigurdardottir
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D022143:Family Nursing; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012944:Social Support; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical