This paper explores clinical nurse supervisors' ethical styles with regard to supervision in healthcare. Eighty-six registered nurses, all with experience of supervising clinical nurses and students in nursing, completed a specifically designed questionnaire. A qualitative interpretative content analysis identified three core themes: (i) 'Is it safe?'; (ii) 'Is it right?'; and (iii) 'Is it kind?', describing the clinical nurse supervisors' ethical styles. The first core theme 'Is it safe?' covered the supervisors' rules, codes and values that guide their supervisory actions, as well as two sub-themes: (i) empowerment and (ii) integrity. The second core theme 'Is it right?' described the supervisors' responsibility and advocacy as well as the ethical dilemmas experienced in the supervisory process. The third core theme 'Is it kind?' included the supervisors' relationships with patients, professionals and supervisees. The results demonstrate the value of offering a support system, such as clinical supervision, which helps nurses to explore their professional identity for the benefit of the patients.

AIM: The aim of the study was to explore the decision-making style and ethical approach of nurse supervisors by focusing on their priorities and interventions in the supervision process. BACKGROUND: Clinical supervision promotes ethical awareness and behaviour in the nursing profession. METHODS: A focus group comprised of four clinical nurse supervisors with considerable experience was studied using qualitative hermeneutic content analysis. FINDINGS: The essence of the nurse supervisors' decision-making style is deliberations and priorities. The nurse supervisors' willingness, preparedness, knowledge and awareness constitute and form their way of creating a relationship. The nurse supervisors' ethical approach focused on patient situations and ethical principles. The core components of nursing supervision interventions, as demonstrated in supervision sessions, are: guilt, reconciliation, integrity, responsibility, conscience and challenge. The nurse supervisors' interventions involved sharing knowledge and values with the supervisees and recognizing them as nurses and human beings. CONCLUSION: Nurse supervisors frequently reflected upon the ethical principle of autonomy and the concept and substance of integrity. The nurse supervisors used an ethical approach that focused on caring situations in order to enhance the provision of patient care. They acted as role models, shared nursing knowledge and ethical codes, and focused on patient related situations. This type of decision-making can strengthen the supervisees' professional identity. The clinical nurse supervisors in the study were experienced and used evaluation decisions as their form of clinical decision-making activity. The findings underline the need for further research and greater knowledge in order to improve the understanding of the ethical approach to supervision.

AIM: To examine clinical nurse supervisors' styles, in terms of models, organization, focus on supervision and theories used in supervision, as well as their perceptions of ethical dilemmas within health care. BACKGROUND: The importance of clinical supervision in clinical practice has been reported. However, literature dealing with its implementation is rare. METHODS: This study is a descriptive-correlational study. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire from two groups of nurse supervisors randomly selected from a university (n = 55) and a hospital (n = 31). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: The models most frequently used were 'case-oriented' and 'decision-making oriented'. The nurse supervision was reported as being organized on a one-to-one basis. The focus of supervision was on 'patient problems' and 'cooperation in team'. The theory most commonly used was the theory of reflection. The supervisors' perceptions of moral dilemmas were related to 'decision making' and actions impacting on quality of care resulting from their supervisor styles. CONCLUSION: By correlating the supervisors' styles and their perceptions of ethical dilemmas, we conclude that it is important to contribute to further research on supervisors' styles in order to ensure successful supervision.

Fatigue is a major problem among individuals diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), but its meaning in daily living is unclear. The aim was to describe MS-related fatigue as lived by a group of individuals diagnosed with MS. Interviews with nine individuals were analysed from a phenomenological perspective. MAIN FINDINGS: MS-related fatigue is living with a time-consuming and all absorbing phenomenon, involving the body and the whole human being. Fatigue is commonly non-constructively perceived and expressed in terms of energy loss, emotional afflictions, dependency and restrictions of life in general, however, it is also constructively perceived and involves a desire to accept life and strive for a better situation. CONCLUSION: MS-related fatigue is a comprehensive phenomenon and its relationship with self-care requires further investigation.

Fatigue is a complex phenomenon that, for those not affected, is hard to understand. To achieve better assessments, caregivers need reliable and valid tools. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Swedish version of the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) among working-aged individuals diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as in a comparative group randomly selected from the general population in the same geographical area. Both individuals with MS ( n =161) and individuals recruited from the general population ( n =194) participated in the study. A questionnaire was used for the data collection. The data were analysed using non-parametric statistical methods. Reliability of FIS was addressed by item-to-item and item-to-total correlations. Concurrent validity was tested for by analysing correlations between the FIS and general questions, and construct validity by investigation of differences in the FIS scores between known groups. The FIS was found to be homogenous, with item-to-total correlation coefficients of 0.42 ≤ r s ≤0.86 ( p [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]