Hospital utilization by older and younger patients in Canada: pre-pandemic findings.

Many countries are experiencing a post-pandemic surge in hospital utilization along with accelerating population aging. Maximal hospital efficiency is required, with utilization evidence essential for identifying appropriate hospital or broader health system reforms. We offer an investigation of the most recent pre-COVID year (2019-2020) of complete population-based hospital utilization data to describe and compare the use of hospitals by older (65+) and younger (0-64) people admitted for inpatient services in Canada.

Mentally healthy living after pandemic social distancing: a study of older Canadians reveals helpful anxiety reduction strategies.

Background: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, older Canadians were the most at risk of severe physical harm, including death, and their return to post-COVID life was expected to be especially anxiety-provoking. A study was conducted to obtain nationally representative evidence of older Canadians' self-perceived anxiety levels and their strategies to manage or mitigate it as public health restrictions were lifting.

Materials And Methods: This study had a cross-sectional descriptive design.

End-of-life conversations about death and dying from volunteer perspectives: A qualitative study.

Objectives: Although often unrecognized, volunteers fulfill many essential roles in hospices and other end-of-life care settings. Volunteers complement the actions of professionals in fulfilling many extra care needs, such as delivering newspapers and tidying bedsides. We explored end-of-life conversations about death and dying between hospice volunteers and terminally ill people, with a particular emphasis on any expressed desire to die.

Suitability of the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire Short Form for Use among Adults in Their 50s: A Cross-Sectional e-Survey Study.

This cross-sectional e-survey study examines the suitability (reliability and validity) of the 12-item Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire Short Form (AAQ-SF) for use among adults in their 50s. The AAQ-SF instrument was originally designed to capture subjective perceptions of physical change, psychosocial loss, and psychological growth by asking people aged 60 and beyond how they feel about growing older. Our sample comprised 517 people residing in three Canadian provinces.

Examining the Contemporary Use of Hospitals in Canada for Palliative Care Purposes: A Population-Based Study to Enable Policy and Program Developments.

It is commonly thought that most deaths in developed countries take place in hospital. Death place is a palliative care quality indicator. To determine the use of Canadian hospitals by patients who died in hospital during the 2019-2020 year and any additional hospital utilization occurring over their last 365 days of life.

Post-death burial and funeral practices in rural Alberta.

Background: Burial and funeral practices are important customary mortuary rituals, especially in rural areas as people are likely to have different values and interests than people who live in larger cities. However, little is known about rural post-death practices in Canada.

Aims: This review gathered information on funeral and burial practices in rural Alberta, a western Canadian province with a diverse rural population.

Mothers' perspectives of physical and psychological issues associated with caring for Ghanaian children living with tuberculosis: A qualitative study.

Aim: The aim of the study was to explore and describe the mothers' perspectives on issues associated with caring for Ghanaian children aged 0-14 years living with tuberculosis.

Design: Exploratory descriptive qualitative design.

Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted face to face with 15 purposively sampled mothers from two health facilities in the Greater Accra area.

Location of Death in Developed Countries: Are Hospitals a Primary Place of Death and Dying Now?

Hospitals used to be a common site of death and dying. This scoping project sought published and unpublished information on current hospital death rates in developed countries. In total, death place information was gained from 21 countries, with the hospital death rate varying considerably from 23.

Intra-Family End-Of-Life Conflict: Findings of a Research Investigation to Identify Its Incidence, Cause, and Impact.

With few investigations of intra-family end-of-life conflict, this study sought to identify its incidence, cause, and impacts. A questionnaire was completed by 102 hospice/palliative nurses, physicians, and other care providers in Alberta, a Canadian province. Participants reported on how often they had observed intra-family conflict when someone in the family was dying, and the impacts of that conflict.

Psychotherapeutic interventions for burns patients and the potential use with Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis patients: A systematic integrative review.

Background: The existing evidence demonstrates that survivors of SJS/TEN have reported long-lasting psychological effects of their condition. Burns patients experience similar psychological effects. It is important to look at ways to help allay the psychological complications of SJS/TEN.

A scoping research literature review to explore bereavement humor.

The death of a loved one is extremely impactful. Although much of the focus now on helping people who are experiencing bereavement grief is oriented to distinguishing complicated from non-complicated grief for early pharmaceutical or psychiatric treatment, lay bereavement support comprises a more common and thus highly important but often unrecognized consideration. A wide variety of lay bereavement programs with diverse components have come to exist.

Humor: A Grief Trigger and Also a Way to Manage or Live With Your Grief.

In 2020-2021, a qualitative study was undertaken using an interpretive description methodology to identify what triggers grief in the first 2 years following the death of a beloved family member, and to gain other helpful insights about grief triggers from bereaved Canadian adult volunteers. In that study, a purposive sampling method was used to select 10 bereaved Canadian adult volunteers for in-depth, semi-structured interviews. This paper reports on the humor findings, as revealed to be a particularly complex grief trigger for many participants, as well as a periodic way for most to manage or live with their grief.

How and why nurses became involved in politics or political action, and the outcomes or impacts of this involvement.

Background: Nurses' political engagement is needed for societal advancements.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explain why and how nurses became politically active, and what they achieved.

Methods: Qualitative, constant-comparative data analysis was used for this study.

Older women's experiences of companion animal death: impacts on well-being and aging-in-place.

Background: Companion animal death is a common source of grief, although the extent and context of that grief is poorly understood, especially in older adulthood. The aim of this multiple-methods study was to develop a greater understanding of the impact of companion animal death on older women living alone in the community, as older women are a distinct at-risk group, and the supports that should be available to help these individuals with their grief.

Methods: Participants were recruited from across Alberta, a Canadian province, through seniors' organizations, pet rescue groups, and social media groups of interest to older women.

A study to determine if and how bereavement support programs provided by Irish and Canadian hospices are evaluated.

A study of the bereavement programs provided by hospices in Ireland and the Canadian province of Alberta was done to determine if and how these are evaluated for efficacy. All but one hospice offered multiple different bereavement programs, with routine in-house evaluations of all programs performed. In all cases, staff and client unsolicited and solicited comments made during and at the end of each program provided data for continuing program refinement.

Autonomy and control in the wish to die in terminally ill patients: A systematic integrative review.

Background/objective: Personal autonomy and control are major concepts for people with life-limiting conditions. Patients who express a wish to die (WTD) are often thought of wanting it because of loss of autonomy or control. The research conducted so far has not focused on personal beliefs and perspectives; and little is known about patients' understanding of autonomy and control in this context.

A scoping research literature review to map the evidence on grief triggers.

Grief is understandably severe in the first days, if not weeks or months, following the death of a beloved person. Unless the mourner develops complicated grief, which is prolonged severe and impactful grief, the initial acute grief lessens in severity over time, although waves of significant grief will still occur with grief triggers. A scoping research literature review was undertaken in early 2021 to determine how often grief triggers occur, what the most common grief triggers are, the impact of triggered grief, and what can be done (by those not diagnosed with complicated grief) to manage grief triggers and mitigate the effect of them.

Inclusion of palliative care in health care policy for older people: A directed documentary analysis in 13 of the most rapidly ageing countries worldwide.

Background: Palliative care is insufficiently integrated in the continuum of care for older people. It is unclear to what extent healthcare policy for older people includes elements of palliative care and thus supports its integration.

Aim: (1) To develop a reference framework for identifying palliative care contents in policy documents; (2) to determine inclusion of palliative care in public policy documents on healthcare for older people in 13 rapidly ageing countries.

What Exactly Is "Complicated" Grief? A Scoping Research Literature Review to Understand Its Risk Factors and Prevalence.

Most people will experience bereavement grief, but some suffer from persistent or prolonged (PoP) grief, grief that used to be identified as "complicated" before recent DSM-5 and ICD-11 definitional developments. In 2020, a scoping literature review was undertaken to identify and consolidate contemporary evidence from research articles published in 2018 or 2019 in paper-based and open access peer-review journals on: (a) the incidence or prevalence of PoP grief, and (b) who develops it or is diagnosed as suffering from it, and correspondingly what causative factors or predictors are associated with PoP grief. All of the 11 identified research articles reported an incidence or prevalence rate, with these varying greatly, but with a much higher rate now that a 6-month post-death measurement timeframe is used.

The need for and value of nurse and midwife prescribing: Findings from an Irish research investigation.

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the need for and value of nurse and midwife prescribing in Ireland as identified by these prescribers-the people most able to provide relevant insights and information.

Background: Since 2007, nurses and midwives in Ireland who have passed an additional educational program can prescribe medicinal products relative to their clinical practice areas. Research evidence of efficacy is needed now for prescribing sustainability in Ireland and to encourage, if successful, the adoption or expansion of frontline nurse/midwife prescribing rights in other countries.

Determining if nurses are involved in political action or politics: A scoping literature review.

Background: There is much current as well as long-standing concern that nurses need to be more involved in and also more adept at politics and political action for the advancement of the profession, and for the health and wellbeing of the public.

Objectives: An historical scoping literature review was carried out to identify if, as well as why, when, and how nurses become involved in government or meso-level political action or politics, and what is or has been gained through this involvement.

Design: Scoping literature review.

A Scoping Research Literature Review to Identify Contemporary Evidence on the Incidence, Causes, and Impacts of End-of-Life Intra-Family Conflict.

When someone is terminally ill, it is often a very stressful time for the dying person and their family. It would not be unusual for intra-family conflict, involving one or more family members and even the dying person, to occur. However, this type of conflict has not been identified as an end-of-life issue needing to be noticed and addressed or prevented when possible.

The potential impact of bereavement grief on workers, work, careers, and the workplace.

Bereavement grief is typically very painful and often highly consequential. People who are working could be significantly impacted by the death of someone they care about. A qualitative study sought an understanding of the lived experience of bereavement on the mourner's ability to work and their work-related experiences following the death of a loved one.

An Outreach Rehabilitation Program for Nursing Home Residents After Hip Fracture May Be Cost-Saving.

Background: We compared the cost-effectiveness of 10 weeks of outreach rehabilitation (intervention) versus usual care (control) for ambulatory nursing home residents after hip fracture.

Methods: Enrollment occurred February 2011 through June 2015 in a Canadian metropolitan region. Seventy-seven participants were allocated in a 2:1 ratio to receive a 10-week rehabilitation program (intervention) or usual care (control) (46 intervention; 31 control).

Identifying contemporary early retirement factors and strategies to encourage and enable longer working lives: A scoping review.

Aim: Accelerating population ageing is raising concern in many countries now in relation to the availability of workers for essential work roles and responsibilities. A scoping research literature review was done to identify factors currently associated with early retirement and contemporary strategies to encourage and support longer working lives.

Methods: Using the PRISMA-ScR Checklist, we searched the Directory of Open Access Journals and EBSCO Discovery Service for published 2013-2018 research articles using the keyword/MeSH term "early retirement"; 54 English-language articles in peer-review journals were reviewed.