Introduction

Abstract

This book is based on the long-lasting research efforts and international research collaboration (Individualised Care Project, ICProject) since the beginning of the 2000s. The ICProject commenced in 2000 as a doctoral study and later evolved to a research programme in the University of Turku, Department of Nursing Science, Turku, Finland. The aim of the ICProject was to identify and examine the nurse, patient and organisational factors associated with the provision of individualised care from both the patients’ and nurses’ perspectives in different care settings, to compare nurses’ and patients’ perceptions of individualised care and to examine the impact of individualised care on patient and nurse outcomes. The ICProject broadened in terms of the research contexts moving from an acute hospital context to older person long-term care, home care, sheltered housing and nursing homes and in primary healthcare centres. Individualised care is seen as an indicator of quality of nursing care…