Purpose: There is a growing interest in mindfulness-based expressive arts interventions in oncology, to help patients process their experiences, learn how to live with cancer, and ameliorate psychological distress. Our research purpose was to explore how patients with cancer experience a mindfulness-based expressive arts group intervention, and to articulate individual and contextual factors influencing their experiences.
Methods: We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study and recruited 32 participants who experienced a 10-week mindfulness-based expressive arts group intervention at a tertiary cancer center in mid-Western Canada.
Background: Optimal strategies to facilitate implementation of evidence-based clinical pathways are unclear. We evaluated two implementation strategies (Core versus Enhanced) to facilitate implementation of a clinical pathway for the management of anxiety and depression in cancer patients (the ADAPT CP).
Methods: Twelve cancer services in NSW Australia were cluster randomised, stratified by service size, to the Core versus Enhanced implementation strategy.
Background: Oncology patients who are migrants or refugees face worse outcomes due to language and communication barriers impacting care. Interventions such as consultation audio-recordings and question prompt lists may prove beneficial in mediating communication challenges. However, designing robust research inclusive of patients who do not speak English is challenging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOur previous review of compassion measures in healthcare between 1985 and 2016 concluded that no available measure assessed compassion in healthcare in a comprehensive or methodologically rigorous fashion. The present study provided a comparative review of the design and psychometric properties of recently updated or newly published compassion measures. The search strategy of our previous review was replicated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhenomenon: Training programs have been used to improve compassion in healthcare, but the factors necessary to make such programs successful and sustainable have not been identified. This thematic analysis aimed to bridge the gap between theory and practice by drawing on the experiences of international leaders and educators of compassion training programs to develop a clear understanding of what is relevant and effective and how compassion training is implemented and sustained.
Approach: International leaders and educators of compassion training programs (N = 15) were identified through convenience sampling based on academic and gray literature searches.
Background: Patients and families want their healthcare to be delivered by healthcare providers that are both competent and compassionate. While compassion training has begun to emerge in healthcare education, there may be factors that facilitate or inhibit the uptake and implementation of training into practice. This review identified the attributes that explain the successes and/or failures of compassion training programs offered to practicing healthcare providers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen research is conducted from a Western paradigm alone, the findings and resultant policies often ignore Indigenous peoples' health practices and fail to align with their health care priorities. There is a need for decolonized approaches within qualitative health research to collaboratively identify intersecting reasons behind troubling health inequities and to integrate Indigenous knowledge into current health care services. We engaged with First Nations women to explore to what extent digital storytelling could be a feasible, acceptable, and meaningful research method to inform culturally safe health care services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Qual Stud Health Well-being
December 2021
: Intimate care procedures, such as bathing and toileting, are often regarded as simple, humble tasks. However, the provision of such care transforms a very private, personal activity into a social process. U this complex process and the psychological impact it has on those providing and receiving care is critical in order to mitigate potential distress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Compassion is a key indicator of quality care that is reportedly eroding from patients' care experience. While the need to assess compassion is recognised, valid and reliable measures are lacking. This study developed and validated a clinically informed, psychometrically rigorous, patient-reported compassion measure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To investigate the current state and quality of compassion education interventions offered to health care providers during training or practice, determine how the components of each education intervention map onto the domains of an empirically based clinical model of compassion, and identify the most common approaches to compassion education.
Method: The MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, ERIC, and Education Research Complete databases were searched from inception to March 2020 in this systematic review. Studies that evaluated a compassion education intervention for health care providers or those in training to enhance compassion toward patients and/or families were included.
Objective: We aimed to determine the impact of a primary treatment consultation recording on perception of being informed, satisfaction with cancer care, satisfaction with the oncologist, and psychological distress in patients with brain tumors.
Methods: This was a prospective, double-blind, parallel, randomized controlled trial conducted in 3 Canadian cities, in which patients who had their initial treatment consultation recorded were assigned to either receive their digital recording or not. It was hypothesized that patients who received their recording would realize statistically significant benefit on the outcomes of interest at 1 week, 3 months, and 6 months post-consultation in comparison to patients who did not receive their recording.
Background: There is little concrete guidance on how to train current and future healthcare providers (HCPs) in the core competency of compassion. This study was undertaken using Straussian grounded theory to address the question: "What are healthcare providers' perspectives on training current and future HCPs in compassion?"
Methods: Fifty-seven HCPs working in palliative care participated in this study, beginning with focus groups with frontline HCPs (n = 35), followed by one-on-one interviews with HCPs who were considered by their peers to be skilled in providing compassion (n = 15, three of whom also participated in the initial focus groups), and end of study focus groups with study participants (n = 5) and knowledge users (n = 10).
Results: Study participants largely agreed that compassionate behaviours can be taught, and these behaviours are distinct from the emotional response of compassion.
Purpose: Personalised information and support can be provided to cancer survivors using a structured approach. Needs assessment tools such as the Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) in the UK and the Comprehensive Problem and Symptom Screening (COMPASS) questionnaire in Canada are recommended for use in practice; however, they are not widely embedded into practice. The study aimed to determine the extent to which nurses working in cancer care in the UK and Manitoba value NA and identify any barriers and facilitators they experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Research has identified inadequacies in the quality and quantity of dementia-related information, particularly end-of-life information provided to those living with dementia and their family caregivers. The purpose of this study was to identify what types of information family caregivers of persons living with dementia in nursing homes would deem useful in preparing them for their relative's end-of-life and assist them to make decisions about care along the dementia trajectory.
Methods: The qualitative methodology of interpretive description was used to guide the study in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with nursing home staff in clinical roles (e.
Background And Purpose: Although various measure development guidelines exist, practical guidance on how to systematically generate items is nascent. This article provides practical guidance on item generation in measure development and the use of a Table of Specifications (TOS) in this process.
Methods: In addition to a review of the literature, the item generation process within an ongoing study to develop a valid and reliable patient-reported measure of compassion is provided.
Background: Although compassionate care is considered a cornerstone of quality palliative care, there is a paucity of valid and reliable measures to study, assess, and evaluate how patients experience compassion/compassionate care in their care.
Objective: The aim was to develop a patient-reported compassion measure for use in research and clinical practice with established content-related validity evidence for the items, question stems, and response scale.
Methods: Content validation for an initial 109 items was conducted through a two-round modified Delphi technique, followed by cognitive interviews with patients.
Background: A simple and inexpensive method is required to assess fatty infiltration of the liver non-invasively.
Aim: To develop and compare different methods to quantify liver fat by magnetic resonance and compare it against ultrasound.
Material And Methods: Three algorithms were implemented: region growing (RG), graph cuts (GC) and hierarchical (HR), all based on the IDEAL method to obtain water and fat images.
Research efforts to identify factors that influence successful implementation are growing. This paper describes methods of defining and measuring outcomes of implementation success, using a cluster randomized controlled trial with 12 cancer services in Australia comparing the effectiveness of implementation strategies to support adherence to the Australian Clinical Pathway for the Screening, Assessment and Management of Anxiety and Depression in Adult Cancer Patients (ADAPT CP). Using the StaRI guidelines, a process evaluation was planned to explore participant experience of the ADAPT CP, resources and implementation strategies according to the Implementation Outcomes Framework.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health service change is difficult to achieve. One strategy to facilitate such change is the clinical pathway, a guide for clinicians containing a defined set of evidence-based interventions for a specific condition. However, optimal strategies for implementing clinical pathways are not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A lack of evidence and psychometrically sound measures of compassion necessitated the development of the first known, empirically derived, theoretical Patient Compassion Model (PCM) generated from qualitative interviews with advanced cancer inpatients. We aimed to assess the credibility and transferability of the PCM across diverse palliative populations and settings.
Methods: Semi-structured, audio-recorded qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 patients with life-limiting diagnoses, recruited from 4 settings (acute care, homecare, residential care, and hospice).
Context: It has become commonplace to use family caregivers as proxy responders where patients are unable to provide information about their symptoms and concerns to health care providers.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the degree of concordance between patients' and family members' reports of patient symptoms and concerns at end of life.
Methods: Sample dyads included a mix of patients residing at home, in a nursing home, in a long-term care facility, or in hospice.
Objective: Survivorship literature generally focuses on the cancer experience after diagnosis and treatment. However, acute survivorship, beginning with diagnosis and ending at the completion of treatment, has a lasting impact on the well-being of patients. The purpose of this study was to generate a theoretical understanding of how identity is affected during acute survivorship.
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