Sammanfattning
This article reports on the value of evidence-based practice in a department of orthopaedic surgery to involve relatives, which also addresses clinical nursing perspectives and working conditions.
Specifically, the project centres around the relatives of elderly patients hospitalised with hip fractures. Owing to their high age and emergency admission status, this group of patients tends to be vulnerable and not in full command of their situation. For that reason, the relatives frequently take on a prominent role in the patient’s care plan as active communicators and coordinators.
With reference to an action-research study, the article demonstrates that nurse-relative cooperation transitioned, via the facilitation of status interviews, positive progress and reference to a relatives’ pamphlet, from being arbitrary and characterised by discrepant expectations to reconciling expectations and equitable status for relatives in patient-centred cooperation. This targeted transition means that cooperation with relatives has become a prominent nursing task in which a common terminology professionalises the domain.