Grey area nursing: high-dependency nurses' experiences of caring for patients approaching the transition from curative to palliative care.

Nurses in high-dependency units frequently facilitate the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments and provide end-of-life care. Providing this care has been shown to cause distress, burnout and cumulative grief. There remains a lack of understanding of high dependency nurses' experiences of caring for patients approaching withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments.

A different way of life: a qualitative study on the experiences of family caregivers of stroke survivors living at home.

There are approximately 1.3 million stroke survivors in the UK, with the majority of them relying on family caregivers for support. However, the needs of family caregivers are not routinely assessed by most services.

A Qualitative Study Exploring Patient, Family Carer and Healthcare Professionals' Direct Experiences and Barriers to Providing and Integrating Palliative Care for Advanced Head and Neck Cancer.

Objectives: To report on direct experiences from advanced head and neck cancer patients, family carers and healthcare professionals, and the barriers to integrating specialist palliative care.

Methods: Using a naturalistic, interpretative approach, within Northwest England, a purposive sample of adult head and neck cancer patients was selected. Their family carers were invited to participate.

Virtual learning environment ('Ivy Street') for palliative medicine education: student and facilitator evaluation.

Aim: The study aimed to evaluate student and facilitator perceptions regarding the novel use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) in the development and implementation of 'Ivy Street'.

Sample/methods: Healthcare professionals enrolled on the first palliative and end-of-life care masters level module and course facilitators were invited to participate in the study. Two online surveys were developed comprising five open-ended questions to gain both student (n=16) and facilitator (n=4) perceptions of Ivy Street.

Methadone-Assisted Opiate Withdrawal and Subsequent Heroin Abstinence: The Importance of Psychological Preparedness.

Background And Objectives: Treatment guidelines emphasize patients' readiness for transitioning from opiate substitution treatment (OST) to opiate withdrawal and abstinence. Psychological preparedness indicators for this transition were examined.

Methods: Patients (all male) were recruited from three treatment settings: prison, an inpatient detoxification unit, and an outpatient clinic.

The specification, acceptability and effectiveness of respite care and short breaks for young adults with complex healthcare needs: protocol for a mixed-methods systematic review.

Introduction: The number of young adults with complex healthcare needs due to life-limiting conditions/complex physical disability has risen significantly as children with complex conditions survive into adulthood. Respite care and short breaks are an essential service, however, needs often go unmet after the transition to adult services, leading to a significant impact on the life expectancy and quality of life for this population. We aim to identify, appraise and synthesise relevant evidence to explore respite care and short breaks provision for this population, and to develop a conceptual framework for understanding service models.

"That's a child, it's not a diagnosis." What can paediatricians learn from medical humanities?: a mixed methods study.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. The aim of this study was to evaluate UK paediatric specialist trainees' perceptions of a medical humanities teaching session on their communication and empathy skills.

Continuing Bonds With Children and Bereaved Young People: A Narrative Review.

Background: Finding alternative ways to reconnect with the deceased is a common feature of bereavement. However, it is currently unclear how bereaved children or young people establish and develop a "continuing bond" with deceased family members.

Aim: To investigate how bereaved young people continue bonds with deceased family members.

The use of digital legacies with people affected by motor neurone disease for continuing bonds: An interpretative phenomenological analysis study.

Background: Motor neurone disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease without cure. Little is known about how young people are affected when a family member has the illness and subsequently dies, resulting in a gap in understanding of how best to support them. One psychotherapeutic approach involves creating a legacy to pass onto the young person, but little research has investigated the use of an emerging format, digital legacies, where videos document a person's life, memories and achievements.

Teaching nurses to teach: A qualitative study of nurses' perceptions of the impact of education and skills training to prepare them to teach end-of-life care.

Aims And Objectives: To explore nurses' perceptions of the impact of a programme designed to train them to teach end-of-life care.

Background: Central to national and international policies are the need for generalist healthcare staff to have education in end-of-life care. Much end-of-life care education is provided by specialist nurses who often have no specific education development to prepare them to teach.

Meeting patients' spiritual needs during end-of-life care: A qualitative study of nurses' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of spiritual care training.

Aims And Objectives: To explore nurses' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of spiritual care and the impact of spiritual care training on their clinical roles.

Background: Many nurses and healthcare professionals feel unprepared and lack confidence, competence and skills, to recognise, assess and address patients' spiritual issues. Patients with unmet spiritual needs are at increased risk of poorer psychological outcomes, diminished quality of life and reduced sense of spiritual peace.

A qualitative study of health care professionals' views and experiences of paediatric advance care planning.

Background: Good end-of-life care planning is vital to ensure optimal care is provided for patients and their families. Two key factors are open and honest advance care planning conversations between the patient (where possible), family, and health care professionals, focusing on exploring what their future wishes are; and the development of an advance care plan document. However, in paediatric and neonatal settings, there has been little research to demonstrate how advance care planning conversations take place.

Meeting the needs of young adults with life-limiting conditions: A UK survey of current provision and future challenges for hospices.

Aim: The aim of this study was to seek views of UK children's and adult hospices on the availability and challenges of providing services for young adults with life-limiting conditions.

Background: Internationally, there are a growing number of young adults with life-limiting conditions and/or complex needs which are degenerative, progressive and diverse and involve complex life-long symptom, medication management as well as palliative care. There are 55,721 young adults, aged 18-40 in England, which continues to increase.

Consulting with children, parents and a teacher to shape a qualitative study.

Background: Patient and public involvement is an emerging element of contemporary research and reflects an acknowledgement of the expertise of people who have personal knowledge or experience of a research topic.

Aim: To discuss the value of consultation in contributing to the ethical and methodological choices underpinning a qualitative study.

Discussion: The study discussed explored the perceptions and experiences of children aged four to 12 with long-term conditions of being held still by adults during clinical procedures in acute care.

Creating authentic video scenarios for use in prehospital research.

Video scenarios have been used to explore clinical reasoning during interviews in Think Aloud studies. This study used nominal group technique with experts to create video scenarios to explore the ways paramedics think and reason when caring for children who are sick or injured. At present there is little research regarding paramedics' clinical reasoning with respect to performing non-urgent procedures on children.

Health care professionals' perceptions of a community based 'virtual ward' medicines management service: A qualitative study.

This article describes a qualitative research study using focus groups to explore the views and experiences of a medicines management team (MMT) on the service they deliver within a 'Virtual Ward' (VW); and those of the wider multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals on the service provided by the MMT. Several themes emerged from the focus groups, including impact on patients and carers, team working and issues and challenges. A dedicated MMT was seen as a positive contribution to the VW, which potentially increased the quality of patient care, and appeared to be a positive experience for both the MM and wider multidisciplinary team.

Improving end of life care in care homes; an evaluation of the six steps to success programme.

Background: There are approximately 426,000 people residing within care homes in the UK. Residents often have complex trajectories of dying, which make it difficult for staff to manage their end-of-life care. There is growing recognition for the need to support care homes staff in the care of these residents with increased educational initiatives.

Supporting older people with cancer and life-limiting conditions dying at home: a qualitative study of patient and family caregiver experiences of Hospice at Home care.

Aim: To explore patients' and family caregivers' experiences and perceptions of Hospice at Home care.

Background: The public indicate a preference to be cared for and to die at home. This has inherent challenges, with a key factor being the family caregiver.

Short break and emergency respite care: what options for young people with life-limiting conditions?

Background: Service providers face difficult decisions about how best to develop services for the increasing numbers of young people with life-limiting conditions who require palliative care.

Objective: To explore alternative short break and emergency respite care options to children's hospice care.

Methods: A two-phase evaluation with young people, families and professionals.

The potential therapeutic value for bereaved relatives participating in research: An exploratory study.

Objective: Conducting research with the bereaved presents an immediate ethical challenge, as they are undoubtedly a vulnerable group, associated with high levels of distress and susceptible to both physical and mental health issues. A comprehensive understanding of the potential therapeutic benefits for bereaved relatives participating in palliative care research is limited, and therefore the ethics of engaging this group remain questionable.

Method: This paper describes a secondary analysis of qualitative data collected in the Care of the Dying Evaluation (CODE) project, examining the experiences of patients who died at home.

Finessing incivility: The professional socialisation experiences of student nurses' first clinical placement, a grounded theory.

Background: Clinical practice is where student nurses are socialised into a professional role and acquire the distinct behaviour, attitudes and values of the nursing profession. Getting it right at the outset can maximise the development of a professional identity and the transmission of robust value systems.

Objectives: To explore the impact of the first clinical placement on the professional socialisation of adult undergraduate student nurses in the United Kingdom.

Gaining consensus on family carer needs when caring for someone dying at home to develop the Carers' Alert Thermometer (CAT): a modified Delphi study.

Aim: To report a multi-phase modified Delphi study conducted with carers and professionals to identify the priority areas for inclusion in an alert screening tool for carers providing support to someone dying at home.

Background: Internationally, there is a growing emphasis on increasing choice for patients who wish to die at home which relies heavily on care provided by the unpaid family carers. Family carers can have high levels of unmet needs comprising their psychological and physical health and their ability to provide effective care and support.

Development of the Carers' Alert Thermometer (CAT) to identify family carers struggling with caring for someone dying at home: a mixed method consensus study.

Background: There is an increasing international policy direction to promote home death for dying patients which will impact on the demands placed on family carers. The early identification of carer needs and appropriate intervention can help avoid crisis situations for the carer and avoidable hospital admissions which are reported to be a global concern. The aim of the study was to explore what professionals and carers of patients with cancer and advanced progressive illness, in their last year of life, find burdensome and to develop an alert system for use by non-specialist staff.