Psychological challenges for nurses working in palliative care and recommendations for self-care.

Working in palliative care services has an impact on the personal and professional lives of healthcare staff. The complex practicalities of the role and additional factors such as moral distress, burnout, compassion fatigue and death anxiety all impact on the overall quality of services and patient care. This article aims to highlight what is known of the practical and emotional challenges for palliative nursing care and offers recommendations to services to support staff at an organisational as well as individual level, to help create a more supportive workplace for staff and patients alike.

Through the looking glass: Highlighting the challenges facing healthcare professionals who have cancer.

Background: Little is known directly about the experiences of health professionals with cancer. Current studies mainly employ pathographies as the information source and focus on doctors experiences only.

Objective: This paper aims to build upon our understanding of healthcare professionals who have cancer and considers practical management of barriers and gaps in care.

Managing conversations with patients about death and dying.

Caring for patients who are dying is both a challenging and demanding role. This is further intensified by the expectation that in addition to attending to physical issues, nurses are expected to manage the emotional and psychological aspects of the situation. The inconsistent nature of the care pathways between differing specialist services can often mean that open access to specialist services is not possible.

I beg your pardon?! using conditionals theory to understand doctor-patient communication problems.

Background: Little attention is given to the process and impact of poor communicaton on the doctor-patent relationship.

Objective: The paper aims to employ Theory of Conditionals to help shed light on the experience from a patient perspective.

Methods: Doesnt really apply as this was inductive research i.

Using a frame of reference for talking to patients about death and dying.

Recent years have seen a recognition of the importance of talking openly to patients at the end of life about death and dying. This article aims to add to the existing body of literature on this subject. Conversations at the end of life can be difficult, particularly if the patient is experiencing mental distress alongside their terminal illness.

COPD: a proposed multidisciplinary approach to psychological issues.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) form a sizeable part of the ill-health demographic, both internationally and nationally, impacting markedly on hospital admissions. While prevalence rates of psychological comorbidity vary, there appears to be a consistent presence of depression and anxiety, and additional COPD symptom-related psychological distress. The research evidence base is limited, with seemingly little potential for expansion.

'Heart-talk:' considering the role of the heart in therapy as evidenced in the Quran and medical research.

The emphasis on scientific approaches and evidence-based therapy has been a key force in developing and refining existing models of therapy. While this has been unquestioningly invaluable, it has similarly restricted the development and so implementation of those models that do not lend themselves easily to current research methodology, since the lack of evidence-practice research means they are not considered as 'legitimate' therapeutic practice. That the mind and body have an inter-dependent relationship is readily evidenced in numerous religious texts, but the lack of acknowledgement of that relationship in contemporary therapeutic approaches means that patients are not able to benefit from its use in sessions.

Multidisciplinary work to provide cardiac rehabilitation for patients.

Cardiac rehabilitation is an important aspect of cardiac care strategies. This article outlines the importance of such care using a case-study approach to highlight the impact that rehabilitation programmes can have on individual patients.

Depression in South Asian women living in the UK: a review of the literature with implications for service provision.

Research has shown that South Asian people in the UK underutilize health services compared with White people. Also, where services are accessed, they may not adequately meet cultural and religious needs. In exploring the relationship between the cultural and religious beliefs of South Asian service users about perceptions, beliefs about aetiology, cause and treatment of mental illness, past studies have illustrated a wide range of expectations, experiences, beliefs and attitudes.

A multidisciplinary approach to cardiac rehabilitation care.

In reviewing our rehabilitation service in line with the national service framework a number of issues were identified to be addressed by the nursing and psychology team. It was decided that a group should be set up to help address and contain anxieties in line with patient needs and provide practical information during this interim period of treatment. Patient feedback has shown the sessions meet their needs and staff have found that less time is taken up during individual appointments answering commonly asked questions and repeating information that is frequently asked for.