The article grounds on the assumption that researchers, in order to be not mere technicians but competent practitioners of research, should be able to reflect in a deep way. That means they should reflect not only on the practical acts of research but also on the mental experience which constructs the meaning about practice. Reflection is a very important mental activity, both in private and professional life. Learning the practice of reflection is fundamental because it allows people to engage into a thoughtful relationship with the world-life and thus gain an awake stance about one’s lived experience. Reflection is a crucial cognitive practice in the research field. Reflexivity is largely practiced in qualitative research, where it is used to legitimate and validate research procedures. This study introduces different perspectives of analysis by focusing the discourse on the main philosophical approaches to reflection: pragmatistic, critical, hermeneutic, and finally phenomenological. The thesis of this study is that the phenomenological theory makes possible to analyze in depth the reflective activity and just by that to support an adequate process of training of the researcher.

This article will explore some of the ethical dilemmas that confront researchers when they seek to invite children's participation in research. It firstly tracks the historical landscape of ethical research and will examine the influence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on participatory research with children. Drawing on this background, the article will explore three main themes relating to the ethical participation of children: ethics as protection, the ethics of justice and the ethics of care. We look to contemporary literature in order to ask whether ethical guidelines specifically narrate ethical dilemmas in participatory research. The following are also explored: What is examined and explained as being ethical dilemmas when engaging with children? How does the literature explicate ethics as an explicit consideration in conducting research with children? Where is the ethical sensitivity in participatory practice? The article will conclude by identifying some of the ‘hidden’ dilemmas that need to be openly debated in the literature in order for participatory efforts to move forward.

This review assesses the effectiveness of interventions to reduce physical restraint (PR) use in older people living in nursing homes or residential care facilities. A systematic search of studies published in four electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINHAL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials). The review included individual and cluster randomized controlled trials that compared educational training and multicomponent programs to avoid PR use. Risk bias of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was assessed according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. This review includes 16 studies in a qualitative synthesis that met the inclusion criteria, nine of them offered a multicomponent program and seven offered only educational training. The results of the 12 studies included in the meta-analysis showed a significant trend in favor of intervention over time and intensity of PR use tends to decrease. The review indicates that educational programs and other supplementary interventions should be effective, but the heterogeneous operative definition of physical restraints can make difficult data generalization.

Phenomenological philosophy was developed by Husserl for the eidetic sciences, which are interested in the general essences or persistent characteristics of things. By contrast, the empirical sciences are sciences of facts, interested in the concrete, singular, contextual and accidental qualities of phenomena. We do not encounter general, pure essences in concrete reality; instead, we meet phenomena, which present themselves as the particular actualisations of the essences. For this reason, it is legitimate to distinguish between the eidetic essence, which is constituted by a set of essential predicates that necessarily belong to the thing, and the essence of the concrete, which is constituted by a set of predicates that characterises that unique and singular thing in the space and time in which it manifests itself. Starting from these considerations, this article presents an original interpretation of Husserl’s phenomenological method to develop an empirical phenomenological theory. The ‘empirical phenomenological method’ (EPM) grounded in this theory will first be described, and two examples of its application, in healthcare and educational research, will then be presented.

Despite the worldwide promotion of a “restraint-free” model of care due to the questionable ethical and legal issues and the many adverse physical and psychosocial effects of physical restraints, their use remains relatively high, especially in the intensive care setting. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the experiences of nurses using physical restraints in the intensive care setting. Semi-structured interviews with 20 nurses working in intensive care units for at least three years, were conducted, recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Then, the transcripts were analyzed according to the qualitative descriptive approach by Sandelowsky and Barroso (2002). Six main themes emerged: (1) definition of restraint, (2) who decides to restrain? (3) reasons behind the restraint use, (4) physical restraint used as the last option (5) family involvement, (6) nurses’ feelings about restraint. Physical restraint evokes different thoughts and feelings. Nurses, which are the professionals most present at the patient’s bedside, have been shown to be the main decision-makers regarding the application of physical restraints. Nurses need to balance the ethical principle of beneficence through this practice, ensuring the safety of the patient, and the principle of autonomy of the person.

The emotional side of the mind, which expresses itself through emotions, sentiments and moods, plays an important role in human existence because it conditions our own way of being in the world. On this premise, a qualitative research with children was undertaken in order to facilitate the expression of the emotions. The participants were children of four- to five-years-old attending a kindergarten school and six- to seven-year-old children attending a primary school. From the data it emerged that young children are capable of recognizing the emotions in other subjects, revealing themselves capable of empathy. The findings of the research support the notion that young children are competent thinkers and communicators about issues which require deep reflection.