User participation in perioperative hospital care research: a methodological framework for a research program

It is important to study the well-being of patients and their relatives after receiving hospital treatment, as both the healthcare professional and the political attention towards user participation is constantly increasing. In this study, user participation is understood as a way to manage the user's rights, opportunity for choices and human rights through relationships and with their well-being as a common goal. Therefore, the health professionals' understanding of this must be increased, evidence must increasingly form the basis for the chosen actions and the professional management must support a person-oriented clinical practice. The research program's theoretical perspective for perioperative nursing is presented in this article, and it is based on answering person-oriented Fundamental of Care questions and as a methodological challenge to have user involvement as a constant activity. This theoretical and methodological choice guides the continued development of the research program. Perioperative nursing is understood from the time the patient meets the nurse at the time of admission until the time of discharge after the elective surgical treatment is completed. To our knowledge no studies regarding the outcome of FoC for the perioperative patient have been conducted. We address healthcare providers' actions, starting from when a nurse admits a patient until the day of discharge after treatment is complete, and nursing care related to elective surgical procedures in Norwegian and Danish non-university hospitals. The research program seeks insight into the experiences of current and former patients and relatives as well as the healthcare professionals who perform the treatment in Norwegian and Danish non-university hospitals. Based on results from this research program, we expect to be able to increase the healthcare professionals' competencies in Fundamental Care and to increase their openness regarding user involvement, options and human rights for the benefit of surgical patients well-being.