Knowledge and practices of youth awareness on death and dying in school settings: a systematic scoping review protocol.

Background: Awareness-raising and education have been identified as strategies to counter the taboo surrounding death and dying. As the favoured venue for youth education, schools have an essential role to play in informing future decision-makers. However, school workers are not comfortable addressing the subjects of death and dying, which, unlike other social issues, have no guidelines to influence awareness of these subjects in youth.

[Models for designing health-oriented nursing practice : contributions to nursing practice and the nursing discipline].

Health generally represents what nurses should strive for in their practice. However, due to their general nature, the definitions of health are problematic for designing a health-oriented nursing practice. Rather than attempting to design it through a conceptual definition of what health is, some authors from the human sciences suggest using models that allow for a concrete commitment to health.

Nursing activities for health promotion in palliative home care: an integrative review.

Palliative care in community contexts is undergoing significant change as a result of public policy and new models of care, which link health promotion principles with palliative care practices. These models support the creation of partnerships between formal care structures and the communities in which care is provided. Given the central role of nurses in the institutional delivery of palliative care, particularly in the home, it is important to provide a systematic description of the activities of nurses that fall within the principles of health promotion.

Listening to Cancer Patients' Narratives During Residency: A Pilot Study on a Communication Skills' Workshop Involving Patients-Partners.

The field of cancer care still lacks best practices in communication. Few postgraduate training programs offer formal training to develop such skills. The patient partnership has been used in medical education to increase the sensitivity of the subjective experiences of patients.

How does community engagement evolve in different compassionate community contexts? A longitudinal comparative ethnographic research protocol.

Background: Compassionate communities build on health promoting palliative care that aims to address gaps in access, quality, and continuity of care in the context of dying, death, loss, and grief. While community engagement is a core principle of public health palliative care, it has received little attention in empirical studies of compassionate communities.

Objectives: The objectives of this research are to describe the process of community engagement initiated by two compassionate communities projects, to understand the influence of contextual factors on community engagement over time, and assess the contribution of community engagement on proximal outcomes and the potential for sustaining compassionate communities.

Passing through end-of-life suffering: Possible or not? Results from a qualitative inquiry.

The objective of this study was to understand the factors associated with "passing through suffering" in terminal illness. We interviewed 19 adults diagnosed with terminal disease in palliative stage. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.

How compassionate communities are implemented and evaluated in practice: a scoping review.

Background: Compassionate communities are rooted in a health promotion approach to palliative care, aiming to support solidarity among community members at the end of life. Hundreds of compassionate communities have been developed internationally in recent years. However, it remains unknown how their implementation on the ground aligns with core strategies of health promotion.

Levels of Medical Intervention and End-of-Life Practices in Long-Term Care Centres.

Background: Levels of medical intervention (LMI) are legal documents in which physicians record patient preferences, or those of their designated substitute decision-makers, concerning end-of-life care. Studies suggest that, although LMI are intended to orient clinical practice, their function tends to be limited to logistical aspects of care. How LMI shapes or guides patient-centred, end-of-life care remains unclear.

Non-somatic Suffering in Palliative Care: A Qualitative Study on Patients' Perspectives.

Suffering is intimately linked to the experience of illness, and its relief is a mandate of medicine. Advances in knowledge around terminal illness have enabled better management of the somatic dimension. Nevertheless, there is what can be called "non-somatic" suffering which in some cases may take precedence.

Added value of functional neuroimaging to assess decision-making capacity of older adults with neurocognitive disorders: protocol for a prospective, monocentric, single-arm study (IMAGISION).

Introduction: Assessment of decision-making capacity (DMC) is essential in daily life as well as for defining a person-centred care plan. Nevertheless, in ageing, especially if signs of dementia appear, it becomes difficult to assess decision-making ability and raises ethical questions. Currently, the assessment of DMC is based on the clinician's evaluation, completed by neuropsychological tests.

Distress experienced by lung cancer patients and their family caregivers in the first year of their cancer journey.

Objectives: Diagnosis of cancer is emotionally threatening not only for patients but also for their family caregivers (FC) who witness and share much of the illness experience. This study compares distress experienced by lung cancer patients and their FC during the year following the diagnosis.

Methods: A prospective cohort study of 206 patients recently diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer (participation rate 79.

Continuity of Cancer Care and Collaboration Between Family Physicians and Oncologists: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Purpose: Collaboration between family physicians (FPs) and oncologists can be challenging. We present the results of a randomized clinical trial of an intervention designed to improve continuity of care and interprofessional collaboration, as perceived by patients with lung cancer and their FPs.

Methods: The intervention included (1) supplying FPs with standardized summaries related to each patient, (2) recommending that patients see their FP after receiving the cancer diagnosis, (3) supplying the oncology team with patient information resulting from FP visits, and (4) providing patients with priority access to FPs as needed.

Barriers to end-of-life discussions among hematologists: A qualitative study.

Background: Integrated palliative care is correlated with earlier end-of-life discussion and improved quality of life. Patients with haematological malignancies are far less likely to receive care from specialist palliative or hospice services compared to other cancers.

Aim: The main goal of this study was to determine hematologists' barriers to end-of-life discussions when potentially fatal hematological malignancies recur.

Needs of cancer patients in palliative care during medical visits: Qualitative study.

Objective: To explore the needs of cancer patients in palliative care and to determine how care providers, including family physicians, could meet these needs more fully.

Design: Qualitative study performed using semistructured interviews.

Setting: Palliative care departments (ambulatory and intrahospital).

Ultimate journey of the terminally ill: Ways and pathways of hope.

Objective: To better understand the role of hope among terminally ill cancer patients.

Design: Qualitative analysis.

Setting: A tertiary specialized cancer centre in Canada.

Description of a teaching method for research education for palliative care healthcare professionals.

Objective: Despite the rapidly growing availability of palliative care services, there is still much to be done in order to better support clinicians who are starting research programs. Among the barriers identified in the literature, methodological issues and lack of research training programs are often reported. Our aim was to describe an educational research method for healthcare professionals working in palliative care and to report the result of a survey conducted among a three-year sample of students.

Effect of yoga on patients with cancer: our current understanding.

Objective: To determine whether therapeutic yoga improves the quality of life of patients with cancer.

Data Sources: Search of MEDLINE database (1950-2010) using key words yoga, cancer, and quality of life.

Study Selection: Priority was given to randomized controlled clinical studies conducted to determine the effect of yoga on typical symptoms of patients with cancer in North America.

[Does meditation improve the quality of life for patients living with cancer?].

Objective: To determine whether interventions that promote meditation improve quality of life in cancer patients.

Data Sources: MEDLINE data bank (1966 to 2004) using the terms "spiritual well-being" and the MeSH terms "meditation", "neoplasm", "cancer", and "spiritual therapies".

Study Selection: Clinical trials evaluating the effect of meditation on cancer patients.

Primum non nocere: could the health care system contribute to suffering? In-depth study from the perspective of terminally ill cancer patients.

Objective: To explore terminally ill patients' perceptions of their own suffering in order to describe, from these patients' perspective, some elements of health care providers' response to suffering.

Design: Qualitative study using content analysis methods suited to a grounded theory approach.

Setting: Teaching and nonteaching hospital oncology clinics, palliative care services (both ambulatory and in-unit), and family practices.