Aged parents' experiences during a critical illness trajectory and after the death of an adult child: a review of the literature.

Background: Given the growing life expectancy, the likelihood increases that health-care providers are confronted with older people having an adult child with a life-limiting disease.

Aim: This literature review aimed to (1) explore the experiences of aged parents with regard to their position and role as a parent of an adult child with a life-limiting illness, (2) detect gaps in the existing literature and (3) make recommendations for future research.

Design: A literature search of English articles, including both quantitative and qualitative designs.

Researching lived experience in health care: significance for care ethics.

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of qualitative research for studying the ethics of care, bringing to light the lived experience of health care recipients, together with the importance of methods that allow reconstruction of the processes underlying this lived experience. Lived experiences of families being approached for organ donation, parents facing the imminent death of their child and patients being treated using stem cell transplantation are used to illustrate how ethical principles are differentiated, modified or contradicted by the narrative context of persons concerned. The integration of empirical data into ethics will help caregivers in their ethical decision making and may enrich care ethics as a narrative and interpretative field.

Involvement of inpatient mental health clients in the practical training and assessment of mental health nursing students: Can it benefit clients and students?

Even though the central position of the client has been recognized in psychiatric nursing education, the client is seldom formally involved in the feedback provided to students during practical training. This research paper focuses on three questions: (1) What conditions support the gathering of meaningful client feedback to enhance the student's learning process and client's wellbeing? (2) Does the use of the practical model for client feedback lead to positive experiences, and if so, under what conditions? (3) To what extent is a client's feedback on the student's work performance, consistent with feedback from the mentor (nurse from the ward), the teacher and the student? Based on a literature review, participatory observation and contacts with experts, a practical model was developed to elicit client feedback. Using this model in two psychiatric inpatient services, clients were actively and formally involved in providing feedback to four, final year psychiatric nursing students.

The focus of family members' functioning in the acute phase of traumatic coma: part two: Protecting from suffering and protecting what remains to rebuild life.

Aims: The identification and description of the basic psychological process linked with the focus of family members' functioning during the acute phase of traumatic coma.

Background: Earlier research learned that hope is a core category in coping with traumatic coma. Hope seems to be the drive to keep family members going and to enable them to fulfil their main task, namely protecting.

The focus of family members' functioning in the acute phase of traumatic coma: part one: The initial battle and protecting life.

Aims: The identification and description of the basic psychological process linked with the focus of family members' functioning during the acute phase of traumatic coma.

Background: Earlier research learned that hope is a core category in coping with traumatic coma. Hope seems to be the drive to keep family members going and to enable them to fulfil their main task namely protecting.

How does information influence hope in family members of traumatic coma patients in intensive care unit?

Aims: To assess the interplay between hope and the information provided by health care professionals.

Background: Earlier research learned that hope is crucial for relatives of traumatic coma patients. Also it has been reported that the need for information is extremely important for relatives of critically ill patients.

The process and the meaning of hope for family members of traumatic coma patients in intensive care.

In this study, the authors examined the process that family members go through when they are confronted with traumatic coma. They conducted 24 semistructured interviews with 22 family members of 16 coma patients and analyzed the data using the constant comparative method as proposed by grounded theory. Hope was the most prominent theme.