The care pathway experienced by cutaneous melanoma survivors: A qualitative longitudinal study.

Background: The optimal management of cutaneous melanoma is based on implementing a multidisciplinary tumour board. No studies report cutaneous melanoma patients' perspective along the whole care pathway, taking us through their care experience longitudinally.

Aims: To explore the patients' perspective on the cutaneous melanoma care journey in a skin cancers' tertiary referral centre.

Sexual satisfaction and its predictors in patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers in six European countries: Baseline data from the DIAdIC study.

Objective: To identify predictors of sexual satisfaction in patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers.

Methods: Cross-sectional study using baseline survey data from a randomized controlled trial in six European countries. Patients with advanced cancer and their family caregiver completed measures on sexual satisfaction (one item from Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General questionnaire for patients and Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer scale for family caregivers) and health-related characteristics.

Defining a balance by compromising with fear: A grounded theory study on returning to eating after a total gastrectomy.

Objectives: Gastric cancer patients undergoing total gastrectomy face nutrition-related complications and worsening quality of life after surgery. In this context, gastrectomized cancer patients are required to cope with new conditions. Little is known about their accommodating feeding to the new life condition as a negotiated process among stakeholders in real contexts.

Content and Face Validity of the Evaluation Tool of Health Information for Consumers (ETHIC): Getting Health Information Accessible to Patients and Citizens.

Background: Health information concerns both individuals' engagement and the way services and professionals provide information to facilitate consumers' health decision making. Citizens' and patients' participation in the management of their own health is related to the availability of tools making health information accessible, thus promoting empowerment and making care more inclusive and fairer. A novel instrument was developed (Evaluation Tool of Health Information for Consumers-ETHIC) for assessing the formal quality of health information materials written in Italian language.

How parents and health professionals experience prematurity in an Italian neonatal intensive care: A grounded theory study.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore prematurity as a psycho-social process from the point of view of both parents and healthcare professionals.

Design And Methods: We conducted a Grounded Theory study through semi-structured interviews. Participants were from an Italian Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, including parents of premature children, and health professionals.

Mindfulness-based therapies for cancer patients and families: a systematic review.

Background: Mindfulness-based therapies (MBTs) addressed to patients with cancer have been widely studied in the last two decades, and their efficacy has been systematically reviewed and meta-analysed. Although findings from literature highlight benefits of MBTs on several patients' health outcomes, these should be appraised taking into consideration the characteristics of the selected studies. In this systematic review, we summarised the current evidence of the efficacy of MBTs in improving the quality of life of both patients with cancer and their relatives, with a focus on the methodological quality, type of MBT evaluated and population involved in existing randomised controlled trials (RCTs).

Effectiveness of a nurse-delivered (FOCUS+) and a web-based (iFOCUS) psychoeducational intervention for people with advanced cancer and their family caregivers (DIAdIC): study protocol for an international randomized controlled trial.

Background: Worldwide, millions of people with advanced cancer and their family caregivers are experiencing physical and psychological distress. Psychosocial support and education can reduce distress and prevent avoidable healthcare resource use. To date, we lack knowledge from large-scale studies on which interventions generate positive outcomes for people with cancer and their informal caregivers' quality of life.

Providing dignity therapy to patients with advanced cancer: a feasibility study within the setting of a hospital palliative care unit.

Background: Dignity is a basic principle of palliative care and is intrinsic in the daily practice of professionals assisting individuals with incurable diseases. Dignity Therapy (DT) is a short-term intervention aimed at improving the sense of purpose, meaning and self-worth and at reducing the existential distress of patients facing advanced illness. Few studies have examined how DT works in countries of non-Anglo Saxon culture and in different real-life settings.

Health professionals and students' experiences of reflective writing in learning: A qualitative meta-synthesis.

Background: Reflective writing provides an opportunity for health professionals and students to learn from their mistakes, successes, anxieties, and worries that otherwise would remain disjointed and worthless. This systematic review addresses the following question: "What are the experiences of health professionals and students in applying reflective writing during their education and training?"

Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. Our search comprised six electronic databases: MedLine, Embase, Cinahl, PsycINFO, Eric, and Scopus.

Meanings Emerging From Dignity Therapy Among Cancer Patients.

Context: Generativity is a process whereby patients nearing the end of life invest in those they will soon leave behind. In recent years, the trajectory of cancer has changed, as new therapies have prolonged survival and patients often live with metastatic disease for several years. For these patients and for the healthcare professionals who care for them it can be useful to understand if the concept of generativity is clinically salient.

"Achieve the best while rushing against time": A grounded theory study on caring for low-income immigrant cancer patients at end of life.

Background: Between 2000 and 2020, Europe experienced an annual net arrival of approximately 1.6 million immigrants per year. While having lower mortality rates, in the setting of severe diseases, immigrants bear a greater cancer-related burden due to linguistic and cultural barriers and socio-economic conditions.

How to communicate with families living in complete isolation.

Importance: During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a complete physical isolation has been worldwide introduced. The impossibility of visiting their loved ones during the hospital stay causes additional distress for families: in addition to the worries about clinical recovery, they may feel exclusion and powerlessness, anxiety, depression, mistrust in the care team and post-traumatic stress disorder. The impossibility of conducting the daily meetings with families poses a challenge for healthcare professionals.

"Challenging Professional Boundaries": A Grounded Theory Study of Health Professionals' First Experiences of End-of-Life Care in Hospital.

Little is known about health professionals first experiences of End-of-Life care in hospital. This study aims to understand the psycho-social process that occurs when hospital-based health professionals engage in caring for a dying patient for the first time. We conducted a Grounded Theory study, with 19 health professionals.

Health professionals learning qualitative research in their workplace: a focused ethnography.

Background: The interest for qualitative research methodology has expanded beyond theoretical academic research on medical education, gathering interest from all healthcare professionals. Qualitative research has potentials in exploring the social, emotional, psychological aspects of care and in broadening professionals' scientific competencies. Nonetheless, qualitative research has still not been embraced within formal and academic curricula for future professionals, preventing newer generations from appreciating the value of its epistemological and methodological aspects and from using it in the development and implementation of clinical research.

Quality of cancer end-of-life care: discordance between bereaved relatives and professional proxies.

Background: Quality of care for patients dying in hospital remains suboptimal. A major problem is the identification of valid sources of information about the views and experiences of dying patients and their relatives.

Aim: This study aimed to estimate the agreement on quality of end-of-life care from the perspectives of bereaved relatives, physicians and nurses interviewed after the patients' death.

Palliative care in the emergency department as seen by providers and users: a qualitative study.

Background: Much effort has been made to explore how patients with advanced chronic illness and their families experience care when they attend the Emergency Department, and many studies have investigated how healthcare professionals perceive Palliative Care provision in the Emergency Department. Various models exist, but nonetheless incorporating palliative care into the Emergency Department remains challenging. Considering both healthcare professionals' and users' perspective on problems encountered in delivering and receiving appropriate palliative care within this context may provide important insight into meaningful targets for improvements in quality of care.

Long-term sustainability of a quality improvement program on cancer pain management: a complex intervention in an inpatient setting.

Background: Several approaches towards pain control for admitted cancer patients have been suggested by the literature without achieving satisfactory results. In this quality improvement project, we proposed a multicomponent intervention.

Measures: A set of indicators was established for each component of the project.

"I go into crisis when …": ethics of care and moral dilemmas in palliative care.

Background: Recognising and knowing how to manage ethical issues and moral dilemmas can be considered an ethical skill. In this study, ethics of care is used as a theoretical framework and as a regulatory criterion in the relationship among healthcare professionals, patients with palliative care needs and family members. This study is a part of a larger project aimed at developing and implementing a training programme on "ethical communication" addressed to professionals caring for patients with palliative care needs.

Undergoing head and neck cancer surgery: A grounded theory.

Surgery is the treatment of choice in most head and neck cancers. Very often, the surgery is radical with high impact on the psychosocial, functional and aesthetic fields. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the patient's, clinician's and key informant's point of view when surgery is proposed, to improve the quality of pathways in terms of patients' practical, psychological and relational needs.

Is early integration of palliative care feasible and acceptable for advanced respiratory and gastrointestinal cancer patients? A phase 2 mixed-methods study.

Background: There is evidence that early integration of palliative care improves quality of life, lowers spending and helps clarify preferences and goals for advanced cancer patients. Little is known about the feasibility and acceptability of early integration.

Aim: Assessing feasibility of early integration of palliative care, and exploring concerns perceived and problems encountered by patients, relatives and oncologists.

Promoting post-traumatic growth in cancer patients: A study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of guided written disclosure.

This multicenter study investigates the efficacy of the guided disclosure protocol in promoting post-traumatic growth, through meaning reconstruction, in cancer patients after adjuvant chemotherapy. Participants will be randomized to guided disclosure protocol or to an active control condition. Both conditions consist of three 20-minute writing sessions.