Child protection assessment practices in Estonia
After the Soviet Union era and decades of forced interruption, the social work profession development started again in Estonia in 1991. Social work in re-independent Estonia has not had a long tradition, therefore there is a strong need to develop an effective child protection system that responds to adequate satisfaction of children’s needs. The author of this article sought to understand how Estonian child protection workers assess cases where child protection concerns have been identified. The article is based on the case vignette findings from twenty child protection workers from different regions in Estonia. The study indicated that child protection workers’ level of skills and/or commitment to engaging families constructively in the assessment process differs. The assessment practices indicate that assessments are done for the client rather than with the client .
Parental engagement in child protection assessment: A qualitative analysis of worker and parent perspectives
Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a sample of 11 child protection workers and 11 parents in southern Estonia, this article reports the findings of participants’ experiences of and perspectives on parental engagement in the context of child protection assessment. The four themes that emerge from the content analysis suggest that participants’ perspectives differ in understanding and experiencing the engagement. Workers perceive the engagement more in terms of ‘doing for’ the client, while parents consider it ‘doing together with’ the worker. Furthermore, workers’ approaches are excessively related to the deficit-based approach.
Nurse responsiveness to cancer patient expressions of emotion.
OBJECTIVE
This theoretically based study examined nurse responses to cancer patient expressions of emotion using a videotaped, simulated cancer patient.


METHODS
This study used an experimental crossover design with a videotaped patient expressing anger, sadness, and neutral emotion to elicit nurse responses. Seventy-four nurses from eight sites participated. Responses were coded using Roter interaction analysis system. Correlations explored relationships between variables that impact communication (age, gender, work experience, trait anxiety, work stress, self-efficacy). Regression models explored the effect of variables on nurse affective responsiveness.


RESULTS
Patient expressions of sadness elicited more affective responses than anger. Expressions of anger or neutral emotion elicited more instrumental behaviors than sadness. Variables such as age, work stress and work experience were significantly correlated. No variables predicted affective responsiveness to patient expressions of anger or sadness.


CONCLUSION
Nurse communication showed significant variation in response to patient emotional expressions. Understanding the relationships between demographic, personality, and work variables, and identification of new variables that influence nurse-patient communication, has implications for interventional studies.


PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Over 90% of the participants indicated that the videotape simulation would be a useful method for teaching and practicing communication skills with patients expressing emotions.