Holiday greetings to our international IFNA community from Dr. Sonja Meiers, IFNA President.

Read more here: https://conta.cc/2sL2ydv  

Iceland has led the development of Family Nursing Implementation projects beginning with the first project (2007-2011) at Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Akureyri Hospital (SAk), in northern Iceland, provides both general and specialized health care services (24-hour) with emphasis on emergency and the major speciality treatments of internal medicine, surgical, and psychiatric services. SAk is a centre of specialized health care services in the northern and eastern part of Iceland and focuses on cooperation with health care institutions in rural areas and participates in the development of national health care. The centre of medical transport air in Iceland is at SAk. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Akureyri (HA). SAk has received international accreditation for its operation and is the first Nordic healthcare institution that has received such accreditation. The hospital has protocols according to DNV-GL quality procedures.

In late 2016, the Board of Chief Executives of Akureyri Hospital decided to implement the family nursing using Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models. The policy and vision of SAk, valid until 2021, states that one of the key aspects of the service is the implementation of family nursing.

In the preparation phase, family nursing was implemented in the Ambulatory, Paediatric, Maternity, inpatient Psychiatric, Intensive care, Rehabilitation and Geriatrics, Internal medicine and surgical wards. Recently,  the outpatient Psychiatric ward was added to the project. Head nurses in each ward designated 2 nurses (liaison nurses) to the project. Central quality protocols were elaborated by the liaison nurses and standardized nursing diagnosis were created. All educational materials, information about the implementation, and general information about the project is available to all staff members at SAk.

In the preparation phase, education and skills training were offered to liaison nurses by experts at the National University Hospital of Iceland. Nurses and midwives as well as nurse assistants at SAk were given guidance by the liaison nurses to implement the Calgary Family Assessment (CFAM) and Intervention (CFIM) Models from January to May 2017.   Before implementation, all nurses and midwives were asked to complete the Families´ Importance in Nursing Care – Nurses´ Attitude Questionnaire (FINC-NA) and again at 14 months post-implementation. Results from the qualitative data found that nurses and midwives experienced better communication and better collaboration with family members of the patient when the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models were used.

In October 2018, in collaboration with the Continuing Education at the University of Akureyri, the Faculty of Health Science at University of Akureyri and Akureyri Hospital held a four-day Family Externship workshop with Dr. Lorraine M. Wright and Dr. Janice M. Bell  which focused on generalist and advanced family nursing intervention knowledge and skills. Participants included health care professionals from Akureyri Hospital (SAk), the Health Care Institution of North Iceland (HSN), the Health Directorate of East Iceland (HSA), National University Hospital of Iceland (LSH), and other health institutions.

In December 2018, the Chief Nursing Executives from SAk, HSN and HSA held a meeting where the project manager and the assistant project manager introduced procedures and protocols of the Calgary Family Assessment and Interventions Models at SAk to invite cooperation and collaboration between institutions who are providing health care services to individual and families in northern Iceland.

In August 2019, members of the Family Nursing Implementation Team from University of Akureyri and Akureyri Hospital presented a poster at the 14th International Family Nursing Conference in Washington, DC. For more information, contact IFNA members: Dr. Eydis Sveinbjarnardottir and Snæbjörn Ómar Guðjónsson.

Anna Richardson, MPH, BN, is the Bachelor of Nursing Program Leader at the Ara Institute of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Her primary research focus is on the concept of family, called “whanau” in Maori (the language of indigenous New Zealanders).  The Maori people hold a broad concept of whanau, which can include one’s biological family and family that unite for a purpose. Within this context, she focuses on cultural safety in primary health care delivery and nurses’ responses to natural disasters. Given Anna’s leadership role at the Ara Institute, she is also an expert in nursing education. 

Anna has used the Calgary Family Nursing Assessment Model and is exploring research opportunities to use the Meihana model, which is a tool designed specifically for use with Maori patients and their families/whanau. In all her work, she incorporates cultural safety concepts.

Her research aims to illuminate the practice of registered nurses working with Maori families/whanau and promote the concept of family/whanau in undergraduate nursing education to develop students’ ability to “think family.”

Anna recently had the opportunity to visit Minnesota State University, Mankato, USA where she engaged in research with Dr. Sandra Eggenberger and joined the IFNA International Research Cluster focusing on “Nurses’ Descriptions and Practices of Family Engagement in Intensive Care Settings: An International, Multi-site Qualitative-Descriptive Study.” While learning from colleagues at Minnesota State University, Mankato, she was inspired to incorporate family elements into nursing education simulation activities at the Ara Institute. Now, in their department, they have formed multi-patient simulations and added family/whanau to existing simulations. 

For more information, contact IFNA member Anna Richardson at [email protected]

David Clisbee, MFA, MA TESL, teaches in the Computer Information Science department at Minnesota State University, Mankato, USA. He has collaborated on digital storytelling research initiatives with faculty members Dr. Pat Beierwaltes, Dr. Sandra K. Eggenberger, Lynn Kuechle, and others at the Glen Taylor Nursing Institute for Family and Society since 2014.

David serves as a technologist for the IFNA Family Care in Acute and Critical Illness Research Cluster.

David loves interdisciplinary collaboration and has found a good home for this in family nursing research. He focuses on digital storytelling’s capacity to encourage reflection and develop empathy for families and nurse peers.  He draws on his experience in applied linguistics, digital storytelling, information systems, poetry, and video production while working alongside nursing faculty at Minnesota State University, Mankato and nurses in hospitals in the USA.

The goals of his research are: 1) exploring responsible ways to reduce technical burdens and implementation barriers of digital storytelling in non-classroom settings; and 2) assisting nurses with creating and sustaining digital storytelling within the hospitals where they practice. 

For more information about David click here: https://cset.mnsu.edu/cis/people/facultyDescription/clisbee.html

To contact IFNA member, David Clisbee, about digital storytelling click here: [email protected]

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/david-clisbee

In May 2019, IFNA member Dr. Marie Louise Luttik and her colleagues at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen (the Netherlands) offered a summer school to undergraduate students focused on Family Health & Family Care.

Ten students from Hong Kong (occupational therapy), the USA (nursing), Canada (nursing), and Liberia (health education) successfully completed the 3-week course that focused on the theory and skills training of caring for families, with an emphasis on the intercultural exchange of family stories.  The students described their summer school experience in Groningen as an experience of a lifetime!

The summer school resulted in a group of future health care professionals who will each advance the care of families in their own countries. It was a wonderful learning experience for the students as well as for their teachers!

A video was made of the 2019 Summer School experience at Hanze University of Applied Sciences.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2020 Summer School on Family Health and Family Care: May 25-June 12, 2020. 

For more information, contact IFNA member Marie Louise Luttik.