Data and methods. This descriptive qualitative study was conducted across four Finnish higher education institutions. The data were collected through semi-structured thematic group interviews with 19 social and health care educators. The material was analyzed using inductive content analysis.

Results. The educators emphasized how important continuing education was to their professional development. When discussing the need for further education, the participants expressed a desire for continuing education that covers digital pedagogy and skills relevant to the modern working environment, i.e., entrepreneurial and management competence. However, the participants reported that both their employers and the institution responsible for education spent  insufficient resources on continuing education.

Discussion. Continuing education must cover relevant topics to be useful. This research provides new insight into how continuing education builds social and healthcare educators’ competence as well as which topics have not been covered  sufficiently.

Methods. The interventional study was performed at the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno klinikos, the Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery and the Department of Cardiology. The data were collected between June 2019 and February 2020. The intervention group (n = 109) received nurse-led preoperative education 1–3 days before the surgery. The patients in the control group (n = 109) received ordinary education provided by the staff of the hospital: surgeons, anaesthesiologists and nurses. The patients’ anxiety level was assessed with Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) developed by Eifert (2000).

Results. Postoperative CAQ-Fear, CAQ-Avoidance, CAQ-Attention and CAQ-Total Score decreased significantly in the patients of the intervention group who participated in preoperative nurse-led education (P < 0.05). There was no significant decrease of scores of any anxiety subscale in the patients of the control group (P > 0.05); moreover, the scores of anxiety subscale CAQAttention significantly increased after surgery among the control group patients (P = 0.007). It was found that gender, smoking habit and the average duration of smoking experience did not associate with the level of postoperative anxiety in the patients after coronary artery bypass grafting; age and education had a very weak correlation with the anxiety level of the study sample (r < 0.2; P < 0.05).

Conclusions. Nurse-led preoperative education reduced anxiety in the patients after coronary artery bypass grafting significantly. Gender, smoking habits and smoking duration of the participants were not associated with the level of postoperative anxiety but age and education had a very weak significant (positive and negative) correlation with the patients’ anxiety domains. Before surgery, the patients felt moderate anxiety and, in reference to our study results, preoperative education has to be necessarily included in clinical practice.

Materials and Methods. All geriatric patients discharged after 90–120 days of stay at the nursing hospital with a determined need for permanent nursing (home care) were examined.

Research Methodology. An interview was conducted at the homes of the older patients. In all, data were collected from 113 respondents. The capacities of patients, as well as the received nursing and assistance services, were discussed with the patients and their relatives. The cognition and functional statuses of respondents were assessed by employing the interRAI Home Care (HC) Assessment Form.

Results. From the group of the respondents determined to need permanent nursing (n = 75), only 26.7% received official nursing services at homes, and 13.3% of the research subjects were consulted on nursing services. From the group of the respondents determined to need assistance (n = 38), only 5.3% received assistance services at home.

Conclusions. The current system of providing nursing services at home is inefficient. The patients with a determined need for permanent nursing and assistance were only taken care of by informal carers. The interRAI (HC) instrument is suitable for determining the efficiency of nursing services provided at home.

Methods. A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was applied. The study was conducted in January to February 2016, at the Medical Academy of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.

The study population consisted of 4th-year students from the Faculty of Nursing (32.3%) and the Faculty of Medicine (67.7%), who have completed Nursing Ethics and Medical Ethics courses at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. In total, 248 students participated in the study.

Results. Students from the Faculty of Nursing, compared with students from the Faculty of Medicine, were more often in favour of the fact that new assisted reproductive technologies are a medical breakthrough (P < 0.001) and the science of new assisted reproductive technologies must continue to evolve (P = 0.037). Students from the Faculty of Nursing, in comparison with students from the Faculty of Medicine, were also more likely to disagree with the statement that the effects of new assisted reproductive technologies have not been sufficiently investigated (P < 0.001) and new assisted reproductive technologies are a new type of business (P = 0.019). They were also more likely to question the need for stricter control over the use of new reproductive technologies (P = 0.020). Students from the Faculty of Medicine, in comparison with students from the Faculty of Nursing, had a more negative view on the legalisation of euthanasia when thinking about the beginning and the end of life management ethics (P = 0.008).

Conclusions. The study participants’ overall attitude towards new assisted reproductive technologies was positive. Students from the Faculty of Nursing had a slightly more liberal view on artificial insemination technology than students from the Faculty of Medicine. Medical and nursing students held similar moral positions on the beginning and the end of life management issues, except the legalisation of euthanasia, where medical students had a more negative position.

Methods. First, the literature search was conducted from five electronic databases and manually from grey literature, published in 2000–2011. Thirty-nine sources were chosen and primarily analysed by deductive content analysis. Then, the conceptual models and other practices found in the first phase of the study were analysed thematically, amplifying the concepts, core ideas and main perceptions.

Results. The models, as found in the review, were diverse by their interrelated concepts (their spectrum and abstraction level). For the development of Introduction to Mentorship Programme for Qualified Nurses, it was decided to work with a new approach and to adopt three concepts along with their underpinning philosophies (flexible learning, work-based learning and evidence-based practice) linking them with the nature of clinical training of student nurses and features of the student-mentor relationship.

Conclusions. In this study, an attempt to discover the existing conceptual models for mentorship in nursing focusing on the benefits of their use was made. The arguments and rationale for a distinctive conceptual framework of Introduction to Mentorship Programme are discussed in the paper.