Marita Ritmala-Castren profile picture
Marita
Ritmala-Castren
Department of Nursing Science
PhD, RN
Evaluation and support of ICU patients' sleep; ICU nurses' knowledge and competence

Contact

Areas of expertise

Sleep
adult critical care
Magnet Hospital

Biography

I work in Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) in Nursing Administration as a Magnet Program Director. In my job I help to develop excellent leadership, autonomy and job satisfaction in nursing and excellent patient care results.

My doctoral thesis in 2015 I studied ICU patients' sleep evaluation and quality. The results confirmed earlier research sleep being of poor quality. Now as a post-doc researcher I'm developing and testing a Patient centred sleep support model.

I have worked as an RN in adult critical care for 21 years and as an advanced practice nurse for 15 years prior to my present MPD position.

Teaching

I have taught critical care nursing largely in Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) and Metropolia Polytechnic. I have lead the development of two different critical care nursing educational programs, one for nurse beginners and one for proficient ICU nurses. Both have included lecturing, work shops, evaluating and further developing the programs. Both programs received national recognition and a reward.

In my present position as an MPD I lecture about the Magnet hospital and manage several groups which  develop nursing care in HUS according to the Magnet hospital model.

Research

I have developed a Patient Centred Sleep Support Model. It consists of a sleep interview and care plan for patient and work shops for nurses where general collective sleep support methods are developed.

I'm also developing a Finnish ICU knowledge test together with PhD Riitta-Liisa Lakanmaa and PhD-student Mika Alastalo.

Publications

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