In Sweden adults with major and sustainable disabilities can be granted publicly financed support in the form of personal assistance after assessment and decision-making in accordance with government rules. The purpose of the present study was to explore more deeply the encounters in close care relations between personal assistants and disabled persons of working age, as well as the prerequisites for and obstacles to the success of such encounters, this from the perspective of the personal assistants. Thirty-two personal assistants (22- to 55-year old) who worked for 32 persons with serious neurological diseases living at home were interviewed. The transcribed unstructured interviews were qualitatively analysed using latent content analysis. The analyses resulted in five main themes: Perceptive awareness, Entering into the other's role, Mutuality, Handling the relationship and Personal difficulties facing the assistant. These themes illustrated that a prerequisite for the encounter's being meaningful is that the assistant should be able to observe and understand the unique needs of the disabled person. The assistant must furthermore be able to put herself/himself into the other person's position. It is also important that the personal chemistry between the assistant and the disabled person should be good. Being able to share feelings and interests with the functionally impaired person provides the assistant with positive emotional confirmation of a good relationship. A distressing dilemma the assistant faces is that of distinguishing between the working relationship and the personal friendship. In this borderline area are found experiences, feelings and events that the assistant may view as negative or even unacceptable. This study contributes to the understanding of the complexity underlying the daily community care of disabled persons with an extensive need for care and assistance.

The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of persons with severe functional disabilities who receive personal assistance in their homes, the focus being on their daily life in relation to the ethical principles represented in the Swedish Disability Act: autonomy, integrity, influence and participation. Qualitative interviews were performed with 26 persons and thereafter subjected to qualitative latent content analysis. The experiences of personal assistance were very much in accordance with the said principles, the most important factor being that one is met with understanding. The participants described situations in which their integrity was violated in that they were not treated as competent adults. This indicates the importance of future efforts in nursing to support personal assistants with ethical knowledge and supervision so that they can empower people with disabilities and thereby enable them to maintain their self-esteem and dignity.

Learning in clinical education can be understood as a process of becoming a legitimate participant in the relevant context. Interprofessional training wards (IPTWs) are designed to give students from educational programmes in health and social care a realistic experience of collaboration for the purpose of developing teamwork skills. IPTWs have been found to be appreciated by the students and to influence students' understanding of each other's professions. The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the students' learning on an interprofessional training ward in care for older persons through focusing on the students' ways of participating in the communities of practice on the ward. A case study design was chosen. Multiple data sources were used. The findings show that the students engaged as active participants in the care. At the same time there was sometimes a discrepancy between on the one hand expectations and goals, on the other hand actual participation. There were difficulties in making the training relevant for all the student groups involved. The findings indicate that in the planning of interprofessional education the choice of setting and learning situations is crucial with regard to the learning that will occur.

The lecture will present an overview of the development and results from the Swedish version of the WCQ. The process of translation of the original questionnaire into Swedish is described as well as the results of the first Swedish study about coping with illness-related problems in persons with chronic diseases compared with a group healthy subjects. The first findings indicated the importance of further testing of the psychometric properties of the WCQ. Further psychometric evaluation of the WCQ included 510 subjects (patients, their next of kin and students). The result indicated modest support for the 8-factor model and deviation from equality of factor structures among the sub-samples. The 8-factor model was more adequate in describing clinical than non-clinical samples. A modification of the WCQ with a version of 45 items was made based on the results, which is now current in several studies.

Patients with low-grade glioma have a longer survival than patients with highly malignant glioma, and for this reason questions of quality of life (QoL) are of particular importance to such patients as well as to their next of kin. No studies have been found in which both adult patients with low-grade glioma and their next of kin have estimated their own QoL. This study was therefore designed to investigate the subjective QoL of these two groups. Thirty-nine patients with low-grade glioma selected from a well-defined county population and 27 next of kin participated in the study. The questionnaire used in the study was the subjective estimation of QoL. The main results and conclusions are as follows: the variable absence of work/meaningful occupation showed statistically significant lower ratings among patients than among next of kin. The results show significant influence mainly on the patients' and their next of kin's internal psychological condition; related to background variables but the pattern in the results was inconsistent. There is a need for recurrent rehabilitation during this long-term disease, and a need to give vocational rehabilitation to support the patient's desire to have a meaningful occupation. It is also of importance to include the patient's next of kin when offering rehabilitation.

The aim was to investigate Swedish and Chinese nurses' conceptions of ethical problems and workplace stress and ascertain whether there are differences between the nurses in the two countries and between types of clinics. A comparative and quantitative research design was used. The study was carried out at one hospital in China and two hospitals in Sweden. One hundred and thirty-six Chinese nurses and 137 Swedish nurses participated by completing a questionnaire. There was a statistical difference between nurses working in the different countries regarding commonest stated ethical problem. The Swedish nurses indicated a greater number of ethical problems than the Chinese nurses. The latter felt irritated, dissatisfied or sad at work or after work more often than the Swedish nurses. Forty-one per cent of the nurses in both countries thought there was a modest or rather big difference between the current and the desired quality of nursing. The findings were partially the same in the two countries and this underlines the importance of looking at ethical problems from an organisational perspective.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what strategies people with severe functional disabilities who receive personal assistance in their homes use in their daily life to achieve autonomy, integrity, influence and participation. Qualitative interviews were carried out and subjected to qualitative latent content analysis. The main finding was expressed in terms of six subthemes: trying to keep a private sphere; striving to communicate; searching for possibilities; taking the initiative; striving to gain insight; and using one's temperament. These generated the overall theme: maintaining dignity in close relationships. This study contributes an understanding of the strategies used by people who are dependent on personal assistance. Future efforts in nursing must focus on supporting personal assistants with ethical knowledge and guidance in order that people with severe functional disabilities are empowered to achieve autonomy, integrity, influence and participation in their daily lives.