Relational practice is characterised by genuine interaction between families and healthcare professionals that promotes trust and empowerment. Positive clinical outcomes have been associated with relational practice. To assess and examine in-hospital interventions designed to promote relational practice with families in acute care settings of emergency departments, intensive care units and high care units. The preferred reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines informed the design of this scoping review. To identify relevant studies, databases (Academic Search Complete; CINAHL; PubMed; PsyInfo) and the search engine Google Scholar were searched using terms for core elements of relational practice and family engagement. Of the 117 articles retrieved, eight interventional studies met the search criteria. The interventions focused on relational practice elements of collaborating with and creating safe environments for families, whilst only one addressed healthcare professionals being respectful of families' needs and differences. In relation to the nature of engagement of families in interventions, the focus was mainly on improving family functioning. Family engagement in the interventions was focused on involving families in decision-making. The scoping review revealed a limited number of in-hospital interventions designed to promote relational practice with families in acute care settings. Further research is encouraged to develop such interventions.

Contribution: The scoping review has highlighted specific elements of relational practice that have been overlooked in the mapped interventions. This provides guidance on where future interventional research may be focused.

Background: Emergency departments are regarded as stressful working environments, associated with staff shortages, increased patient numbers and long waiting times. Increased organisational demands for performance can compromise genuine interactions between families and healthcare providers working in emergency departments. A relational practice approach in caring for families can enhance the capability of healthcare providers to simultaneously overcome these difficulties and provide emergency healthcare of high quality. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to describe healthcare providers’ perceptions of relational practice with families in three emergency departments in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Method: Using a qualitative descriptive approach data were collected through semi-structured interviews with healthcare providers working in emergency departments. The data were analysed and categorised using qualitative content analysis. Results: Four categories emerged from data analysis: (1) families and healthcare providers connecting; (2) recognising the uniqueness of families; (3) caring interactions; and (4) taking charge when necessary. Conclusion: The study elicited that healthcare providers working in emergency departments perceived that despite high patient volumes and resource constraints, collaborative relationships with families were important. However, these collaborative relationships cannot be willed into practice, instead training workshops are needed to develop relational skills of healthcare providers which can facilitate family and healthcare professional collaboration. © 2020. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe families' perceptions of relational practice when interacting with health care professionals in emergency departments in the South African context. Background: Relational practice is seen as an approach that amplifies the voices of families through creating meaningful connections with health care professionals. However, the voices of families maybe obliterated by factors in the clinical environment including the pressure to perform and timely patient flow. Design: The study adopted a qualitative design. Methods: Qualitative data were collected from six family members by means of semi-structured interviews and were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Four major categories emerged from family members' perceptions regarding relational practice when interacting with health care professionals in the emergency department, Disrupted worlds; Care is what you see and hear; Powerlessness; Feeling disconnected. Conclusions: Findings highlighted the need for improved relational practice between families and health care professionals in the emergency department. Pathways need to be created to involve families in decision-making and genuinely engage with them. There is a need to move away from the hierarchical "expert" emergency department culture towards one that seeks to include the voices of families in driving emergency department care.

Introduction

Interpersonal violence causes illness and suffering for victims and their family members. Emergency nurses are often given responsibility for forensic patients and their family members, but there is limited knowledge of their experiences regarding this task. This study aimed to describe nurses' experiences when caring for victims of violence and their family members in the emergency department.

Methods

Individual interviews were conducted with twelve nurses from seven emergency departments. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

The analysis resulted in the theme: a challenge to create a caring encounter. Hindering factors comprising this challenge are described under four categories: struggling to intervene and talk about violence; contradictions when caring for family members; being helped by forensic guidelines but needing more knowledge; and dealing with one’s own strong emotions towards violence.

Discussion

Creating a caring encounter is perceived as a prerequisite to providing forensic care. Nurses often felt hindered to act and forensic issues were left unaddressed. Family members are offered little or no support in the aftermath of violence. The hindering factors must be overcome to ensure forensic care for victims of all types of violence.

Aims and objectives To describe the perceptions that municipal primary healthcare nurses and municipal registered nurses had about a web-based learning intervention concerning supportive family health conversations in municipal home health care. Background Even though family health conversations are well grounded in theory with several reported benefits for patients and families, most working nurses have little or no training in practising family systems nursing including family health conversations. Continued learning is necessary for nurses, where web-based learning may be one answer of updating the professional skills and knowledge of nurses regarding supporting families. Design The study used a descriptive design and followed the "Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research" (COREQ) checklist. Methods Twenty-one nurses participated in an educational intervention that consisted of web-based learning and two face-to-face seminars about family systems nursing including family health conversations. The nurses were interviewed after completion, and the audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results The findings consist of nurses' perceptions regarding the disposition of instruction, the prerequisites for learning and a changed approach when working with families. The findings are further reflected on through Illeris' theory concerning learning triangle. Conclusions The findings are encouraging for educating nurses in family health conversations at their workplace, with the purpose of supporting patients and families. However, it is important to be aware of the different dimensions of learning, in addition to the appraisal of social aspects and organisational circumstances when educating nurses as they influence the utilisation of the knowledge. Relevance to clinical practice This web-based learning intervention seems to be suitable for educating nurses in family health conversations and could be an appropriate step towards implementing these conversations in home health care with the purpose of supporting families.

BACKGROUND: Working family carers are an important resource for the care of older people but can experience negativepressures without support.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the perceived value of forms of support and the level of receipt of valued forms of supportamong Swedish working carers, with a focus on information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated support.

METHODS: A convenience sample (N = 129) of working carers caring for an older (> 65 years) relative completed a webbasedquestionnaire that addressed: caring characteristics; work-care conflict; and valued and received forms of support.

RESULTS: Overall non-ICT forms of support were the most highly valued, while receipt of valued support was low: on averageonly 16.9% of participants who valued ICT-mediated forms of support received such support, while the figure was only slightlyhigher (23.4%) for non-ICT forms of support. Higher levels of work-care conflict were associated with higher perceived value ofsupport for 13 out of fourteen forms of support.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that ICT-mediated and non-ICT forms of support should be regarded as complementary,while the low level of receipt of valued forms of support could indicate high levels of unmet need in working carers. Implicationsfor further research and policy on working carers are considered.