The aim of the present study was to describe how registered nurses in nursing homes ensure legal security, good and safe nursing care and uphold the dignity of nursing home residents with severe dementia without violating residents’ integrity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 charge nurses in a county in central Sweden. The transcribed interviews were examined using manifest and latent content analyses. The manifest analysis identified actual local routines involving coercive treatment and registered nurses’ descriptions of complications and alternative (...) measures. The latent analysis resulted in three themes describing nursing strategies: one with coercive treatment, one with coercive treatment under specific circumstances and one to prevent coercive treatment. Interpretations of legal terms regarding coercive treatment and inadequate gerontological nursing training and understaffing seem to preserve the use of coercive treatment. (shrink)

The term ‘ethics committees’ is used for very different things in different parts of the world. In Europe, ethics committees are generally concerned only with research and (apart from Belgium where the same committees deal with both aspects) do not have anything to do with decision making in clinical situations. This article traces the history of ethics committees in the UK and some of the problems encountered by them. It goes on to detail the situation in a number of other (...) European countries. Some topics of research touched on and published in articles in Nursing Ethics are then highlighted, thus making it clear that it is written from my perspective as the Editor of Nursing Ethics and with the help of some of the members of the Editorial Board. Finally, a number of questions are asked and answers attempted concerning the interests served by ethics committees. (shrink)