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Background Enhancing communication in everyday nursing conversations is essential for promoting person-centred care and preserving the dignity of older persons. This qualitative study was performed to gain an in-depth understanding of the nursing assistants’ person-centred communication skills and their communication style. The aim was to explore the communication styles of nursing assistants during home care visits to older persons.

Methods This deductive qualitative study was based on observational data gathered with audio recordings of naturally occurring communication between nursing assistants and older persons during home care visits. Data collection was part of an educational intervention study for in-home nursing assistants and took place from March to December 2022. Data were analysed with a method for deductive qualitative content analysis. The deductive analysis was guided by the framework developed by Bottorff and Morse, and the communication styles identified in the current study, doing more, doing with, doing for, and doing tasks.

FindingsA total of 70 audio recording home care visits, including 39 nursing assistants and 37 older persons were included. Based on conversations during these visits, four distinct communication styles employed by NAs in their everyday interactions with older persons were described in depth with focus on communication patterns observed. The different styles included nuances of communication ranging from being more relational and collaborative to more task-oriented interactions. A pattern of doing too much was also observed.

Conclusions The communication styles used influenced the degree of person-centredness. Nurse assistants’ communication styles can vary during conversations and appear to reflect individual traits. The emotional demands of home care work may require more recognition and support from policymakers and managers. Strengthening person-centred communication and care for older persons requires both training and organizational support.

Aim: This paper examines a theory and practice developed framework aimed at guiding person‐centred communication in registered nurse–patient encounters. The primary objective is to refine and present a data‐ and theory‐driven framework tailored to the demands of nursing practice and those receiving care. To achieve this, the COMCARE model is introduced, providing practical guidance for understanding and implementing strategies for nurses' communication and caring behaviours.

Design: This theoretical paper addresses theory and research on communication strategies during registered nurse–patient encounters based on the principles of caring and person‐centredness.

Results: The COMCARE model outlines communication strategies to guide registered nurses to ensure caring and supportive interactions, aligning with the principles of person‐centred care. COMCARE builds on the necessary communication skills for person‐centred registered nurses–patient encounters and clarifies key components of such communication, with related goals. The key components proposed are related to empathic listening and asking questions, responding and acknowledging, guiding and using clear communication, supportive communication, and appraising and confirming communication. Person‐centred communication requires a broad repertoire of skills to be applied and tailored to individuals in various situations and practices.

Conclusion: The COMCARE model provides an overview of the communication skills essential for person‐centred care, emphasising guidance for nursing practice to support patients' optimal well‐being and health. This framework highlights the importance of communication skills in shaping patient experiences and outcomes and underscores the need for their application and implementation in caring and nursing practice. Effective communication by registered nurses and other healthcare professionals is vital for delivering high‐quality care. The COMCARE framework offers practical guidance and serves as a foundation for future training and education for nursing students, as well as informing policy and research in this area. Further research is needed to test and validate the COMCARE model in clinical settings.

Background: Previous research points to challenges related to the home healthcare of older persons and to the complexity of communication. Although person-centred care has been advocated widely, there remains a need for in-depth knowledge on how to enable person-centred and supportive communication in the care of older persons. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore attributes of person-centred communication between nurses and older persons being cared for in their home. Methods: A descriptive study with a qualitative approach was conducted. A data set from the COMHOME-study consisting of 77 audio-recorded home healthcare visits between registered nurses and older persons was analysed with a method for qualitative thematic analysis. Results: The findings indicate that the attributes of person-centred communication comprise recognising, inviting and involving older persons. To facilitate this form of communication, attentiveness and responsiveness on the part of RNs seemed significant. Person-centred communication was facilitated when the RNs used verbal expressions to emphasise and acknowledge the older persons’ views and were attentive to their emotions and expressions. Conclusion: The nurses’ attentiveness and responsiveness seems important for person-centred communication with older persons. Communication skills are needed to recognise, invite and involve older persons in their care and to support their health and well-being. Implication for practice The importance of communication which facilitate a person-centred approach by nurses should be acknowledged when caring for older persons and included in education and training.

Background This study focuses on patient complaints from a human rights perspective. Despite the UN Convention on Human Rights being widely recognized, it has not previously been examined in relation to patients' complaints on health care. A human rights perspective and the right to the highest attainable standard of health are a major sustainability challenge in health care today. Previous research points to patients' complaints as a growing concern for health-care organizations, and the handling of this concern can lead to improvement in health-care services. Objective The aim was to analyse patients' complaints on health-care services and to examine expressed needs for health care from a human rights perspective. Methods In this descriptive study, a random sample of 170 patient complaints about Swedish health-care services were qualitatively analysed from a human rights perspective. Results The complaints are described in three themes: the right to available and accessible health-care services, the right to good quality health-care services and the right to dignity and equality in health care. Questions of availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality are highlighted by patients and/or relatives making complaints on health-care services. Discussion and Conclusion This study emphasizes the human right to health in relation to patient complaints. Findings indicate that this right has been breached in relation to availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality in health-care services. Further debate, education and investigations are necessary to ensure that patients' rights to health and health care not be taken for granted.

Aim: Empathy is a crucial component of the nurse–patient relationship, but knowledge is lacking as to when empathy develops during nursing education. The aim of the present study was to compare empathy levels at different stages of undergraduate nursing education and different master's nursing programmes. Design: The design was a comparative cross-sectional study. Methods: A total of 329 participants in Sweden, comprised of nursing students in their second and sixth semesters in an undergraduate nursing programme as well as master's nursing students, rated their own empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Results: Students in their sixth semester in an undergraduate nursing programme expressed more empathy than did students in their second semester and master's nursing students. Among the five master's programmes, public-health nursing students expressed the most empathy and intensive-care nursing students the least. 

Objective: To provide a synthesis of already synthesized literature on person-centered care and patient-centered care in order to identify similarities and differences between the two concepts. Methods: A synthesis of reviews was conducted to locate synthesized literature published between January 2000 and March 2017. A total of 21 articles deemed relevant to this overview were synthesized using a thematic analysis. Results: The analysis resulted in nine themes present in person-centered as well as in patient-centered care: (1) empathy, (2), respect (3), engagement, (4), relationship, (5) communication, (6) shared decision-making, (7) holistic focus, (8), individualized focus, and (9) coordinated care. The analysis also revealed that the goal of person-centered care is a meaningful life while the goal of patient-centered care is a functional life. Conclusions: While there are a number of similarities between the two concepts, the goals for person-centered and patient-centered care differ. The similarities are at the surface and there are important differences when the concepts are regarded in light of their different goals. Practice implications: Clarification of the concepts may assist practitioners to develop the relevant aspects of care. Person-centered care broadens and extends the perspective of patient-centered care by considering the whole life of the patient.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the nature, potential usefulness and meaning of complaints lodged by patients and their relatives. DESIGN: A retrospective, descriptive design was used. SETTING: The study was based on a sample of formal patient complaints made through a patient complaint reporting system for publicly funded healthcare services in Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: A systematic random sample of 170 patient complaints was yielded from a total of 5689 patient complaints made in a Swedish county in 2015. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Themes emerging from patient complaints analysed using a qualitative thematic method. RESULTS: The patient complaints reported patients' or their relatives' experiences of disadvantages and problems faced when seeking healthcare services. The meanings of the complaints reflected six themes regarding access to healthcare services, continuity and follow-up, incidents and patient harm, communication, attitudes and approaches, and healthcare options pursued against the patient's wishes. CONCLUSIONS: The patient complaints analysed in this study clearly indicate a number of specific areas that commonly give rise to dissatisfaction; however, the key findings point to the significance of patients' exposure and vulnerability. The findings suggest that communication needs to be improved overall and that patient vulnerability could be successfully reduced with a strong interpersonal focus. Prerequisites for meeting patients' needs include accounting for patients' preferences and views both at the individual and organizational levels. 

Background: With the continuing increase in the older population, being able to communicate with the elderly is one of the many important skills in caring for older people. Therefore, student nurses need support during education to be prepared with the necessary communication skills to meet these demands. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the development of communication skills during nursing education. Design: A quantitative descriptive and comparative study. Settings: The nursing programme at a university in an urban area of Sweden. Participants: Student nurses in the first and third year in a nursing programme in Sweden in 2015. Methods: Data were collected with a self-efficacy questionnaire and analysed with descriptive and comparative statistics. Results: The student nurses in the final semester had a higher self-rated ability to communicate with older people than students in the second semester of the education year. There was also a difference in self efficacy between students with or without former experience of health care work or work in care with older persons in the second semester. However, these differences were not seen in the final semester. The age of the students did not affect the self-efficacy rate in either semester. Conclusions: Student nurses in the present study scored themselves relatively highly, while student nurses in previous studies expressed a need for more communication skills training. Further studies with observations of student nurses’ actual communicative skills in clinical and simulations settings are needed, to pinpoint weak spots and targets for such an education.