Compassionate nursing in challenging contexts: The importance of judgments.

Background: Nurses' demonstration of compassion is an ethical and often regulatory expectation. While research has been conducted to examine the barriers and facilitators of compassion in nurses, little is known about how nurses develop and express compassion for patients who may be blamed for their health condition. Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients are an example of such patients.

Experiences of healthcare providers with eligible patients' loss of decision-making capacity while awaiting medical assistance in dying.

Background: In Canada, under Bill C-14, patients who met all eligibility requirements were prevented from accessing medical assistance in dying (MAiD) following their loss of decision-making capacity while awaiting MAiD. The changes introduced with Bill C-7 continue to limit access to patients who did not enter a waiver of final consent agreement with their healthcare providers. Little is known about the experiences with patients' loss of capacity to consent and subsequent ineligibility for MAiD.

Neuro-oncology clinicians' perspectives on factors affecting brain cancer patients' access to medical assistance in dying: A qualitative study.

In most jurisdictions where medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is legal, patients must have decision-making capacity. Brain cancer often damages the cognitive networks required to maintain decision-making capacity. Using qualitative methodology guided by a relational ethics conceptual framework, this study explored neuro-oncology clinicians' perspectives on access to and eligibility for MAiD for patients diagnosed with brain cancer.

Nurses' Experiences of their Ethical Responsibilities during Coronavirus Outbreaks: A Scoping Review.

Globally, nurses have experienced changes to the moral conditions of their work during coronavirus outbreaks. To identify the challenges and sources of support in nurses' efforts to meet their ethical responsibilities during SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 outbreaks a scoping review design was chosen. A search was conducted for eligible studies in Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase and Embase Classic, EBSCO CINAHL Plus, OVID APA PsycInfo, ProQuest ASSIA, and ProQuest Sociological Abstracts on August 19, 2020 and November 9, 2020.

Health care providers' ethical perspectives on waiver of final consent for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD): a qualitative study.

Background: With the enactment of Bill C-7 in Canada in March 2021, people who are eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAiD), whose death is reasonably foreseeable and are at risk of losing decision-making capacity, may enter into a written agreement with their healthcare provider to waive the final consent requirement at the time of provision. This study explored healthcare providers' perspectives on honouring eligible patients' request for MAiD in the absence of a contemporaneous consent following their loss of decision-making capacity.

Method: A critical qualitative methodology, using a feminist ethics theoretical lens with its focus on power and relationality, was used to examine how socio-political and environmental contexts influenced healthcare providers' moral agency and perspectives.

Nurses' experiences of ethical responsibilities of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced rapid and widespread change to standards of patient care and nursing practice, inevitably leading to unprecedented shifts in the moral conditions of nursing work. Less is known about how these challenges have affected nurses' capacity to meet their ethical responsibilities and what has helped to sustain their efforts to continue to care.

Research Objectives: 1) To explore nurses' experiences of striving to fulfill their ethical responsibilities of care during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2) to explore what has fostered nurses' capacity to fulfill these responsibilities.

Neuro-Oncology Clinicians' Attitudes and Perspectives on Medical Assistance in Dying.

Background: Medical assistance in dying (MAiD), also known as physician-assisted death, is currently legal in several locations across the globe. Brain cancer or its treatments can lead to cognitive impairment, which can impact decision-making capacity for MAiD.

Objective: We sought to explore neuro-oncology clinicians' attitudes and perspectives on MAiD, including interpretation of decision-making capacity for patient MAiD eligibility.

An Analysis of the Long-Term Care Policy Mandates Implemented in Canada during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had a catastrophic impact on Canada's long-term care system. This report compares the experiences of the five Canadian provinces that were most affected by COVID-19. This includes a comparison of the five mandates that provincial governments implemented in order to protect long-term care residents.

Expanding the Concept of End-of-life Care in Long-term Care: A Scoping Review Exploring the Role of Healthcare Assistants.

Background: The context of care provided in long-term care homes is changing, as an increasing number of older adults are entering long-term care with advance stages of illness and higher care needs. Long-term care homes are quickly becoming the place of death for an increasing number of older adults, despite recent literature identifying inadequate and suboptimal levels of end-of-life care. Within long-term care, healthcare assistants represent 60%-70% of the unregulated workforce and provide 70%-90% of the direct care to residents.

Relational influences on experiences with assisted dying: A scoping review.

Background: Family members and healthcare providers play an integral role in a person's assisted dying journey. Their own needs during the assisted dying journey are often, however, unrecognized and underrepresented in policies and guidelines. Circumstances under which people choose assisted dying, and relational contexts such as the sociopolitical environment, may influence the experiences of family members and healthcare providers.