Undergraduate nursing students' attitudes and preparedness toward caring for dying persons - A longitudinal study.

Nursing education needs to prepare students for care of dying patients. The aim of this study was to describe the development of nursing students' attitudes toward caring for dying patients and their perceived preparedness to perform end-of-life care. A longitudinal study was performed with 117 nursing students at six universities in Sweden.

Topics and structure in preoperative nursing consultations with patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery.

Background: The preoperative education, which occurs in preoperative patient consultations, is an important part of the surgical nurse's profession. These consultations may be the building blocks of a partnership that facilitates communication between patient and nurse.

Aim: The aim of the study was to describe topics and structure and documentation in preoperative nursing consultations with patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer.

Nursing students' perceptions of caring for dying people, after one year in nursing school.

Aim: To describe Swedish nursing students' perceptions of caring for dying people after the first year of a three year in a nursing programme at three university nursing schools in Sweden.

Methods: Interviews (n=17) were undertaken with nursing students at the end of their first year. A phenomenographic approach was used to design and structure the analysis of the nursing students' perceptions.

Quality indicators for palliative and end of life care: a review of Swedish policy documents.

Background: All patients with palliative and end of life care needs should be guaranteed equal and safe treatment and care, regardless of their disease or site of care. The inclusion of quality indicators in national guidelines and other guiding documents supports quality assurance and improvement in provision of care. The aim of this paper was to review existing quality indicators in national Swedish policy documents relevant to palliative and end of life care.

Enabling sense-making for patients receiving outpatient palliative treatment: A participatory action research driven model for person-centered communication.

Objectives: In clinical palliative cancer care, the diversity of patient concerns over time makes information provision a critical issue, the demands of information-seeking patients presenting a challenge to both the communicative and organizational skills of the health provider. This study puts forward a practice model for communication between patients, their family members, and professional health providers during ongoing palliative chemotherapy; a model which supports the providers in enabling person-centered communication.

Method: A constant comparative analysis adapted to participatory action research was applied.

Palliative Care Research--A Systematic Review of foci, designs and methods of research conducted in Sweden between 2007 and 2012.

Background: In 2007, a literature review was undertaken of palliative care research from Sweden during the 1970s-2006, paving the way for a follow-up study to explore the recent developments. The aim was to systematically examine palliative care research from Sweden between 2007 and 2012, with special attention to methods, designs and research foci.

Methods: A literature review was undertaken.

Meanings of at-homeness at end-of-life among older people.

Maintaining the well-being of older people who are approaching the end-of-life has been recognised as a significant aspect of well-being in general. However, there are few studies that have explicitly focused on at-homeness among older people. This study aims to illuminate meanings of at-homeness among older people with advancing illnesses.

Factors associated with feelings of reward during ongoing family palliative caregiving.

Objective: Of the few studies that have paid attention to feelings of reward in family palliative caregiving, most are retrospective and examine the experiences of bereaved family caregivers. Although feeling rewarded has been described as an influence that may facilitate the way family caregivers handle the caregiving situation, no study has sought to identify the factors associated with feelings of reward while providing ongoing family palliative care. The aim of this study, therefore, was to identify influential factors in feelings of reward experienced by family palliative caregivers.

Transitions in the communication experiences of tracheostomised patients in intensive care: a qualitative descriptive study.

Aims And Objectives: To describe how tracheostomised patients in intensive care experience acts of communication and to better understand their experiences in the context of the transitions theory.

Background: Waking up in an intensive care unit unable to speak because of mechanical ventilation can be challenging. Communication aids are available, but patients still report difficulties communicating.

Disclosing discourses: biomedical and hospitality discourses in patient education materials.

Patient education materials have the potential to strengthen the health literacy of patients. Previous studies indicate that readability and suitability may be improved. The aim of this study was to explore and analyze discourses inherent in patient education materials since analysis of discourses could illuminate values and norms inherent in them.

First-Line Nursing Home Managers in Sweden and their Views on Leadership and Palliative Care.

The aim of this study was to investigate first-line nursing home managers' views on their leadership and related to that, palliative care. Previous research reveals insufficient palliation, and a number of barriers towards implementation of palliative care in nursing homes. Among those barriers are issues related to leadership quality.

Social support: an important factor for quality of life in women with hirsutism.

Background: Women with hirsutism have reported imparied health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Social support is a factor that might increase HRQoL in chronic diseases, but little is known about this association among women with hirsutism.

Aim: The aim of the study was to describe social support and explore its association with HRQoL among women with hirsutism.

Preparing for palliative caregiving as a transition in the awareness of death: family carer experiences.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore family caregivers´ experiences from partners' stories about preparing for caregiving.

Methods: The study had a descriptive and interpretive design using qualitative interviews and qualitative content analysis.

Results: Preparing for caregiving was described in the two sub-themes: living in uncertainty, focusing on the present and preparing for the future; and preparing for caregiving while transitioning to new roles.

Meanings of eating deficiencies for people admitted to palliative home care.

Objective: Food and eating are embedded in people's everyday social lives: at home with family members and as part of social interactions. For people with progressive life-limiting conditions, however, eating is often obstructed. The objective of the present study was to explore the meanings of living with eating deficiencies at the end of life among people admitted to specialist palliative home care.

Connectedness at the End of Life Among People Admitted to Inpatient Palliative Care.

The significance of connectedness for well-being is well known. At the end of life however, illness and body decline may challenge a person's ability of staying and feeling connected. The aim of this phenomenological study was to interpret meanings of connectedness, through narrative interviews with persons admitted to inpatient palliative care in Sweden.

Is there a difference in survival between men and women suffering in-hospital cardiac arrest?

Objectives: To describe in-hospital cardiac arrest (CA) events with regard to sex and to investigate if sex is associated with survival.

Background: Previous studies exploring differences between sexes are incongruent with regard to clinical outcomes. In order to provide equality and improve care, further investigations into these aspects are warranted.

Meanings of existential uncertainty and certainty for people diagnosed with cancer and receiving palliative treatment: a life-world phenomenological study.

Background: Many people around the world are getting cancer and living longer with the disease. Thanks to improved treatment options in healthcare, patients diagnosed with advanced gastrointestinal cancer can increasingly live for longer. Living with cancer creates existential uncertainty, but what does this situation mean for the individual? The purpose of the study is to interpret meanings of existential uncertainty and certainty for people diagnosed with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and receiving palliative treatment.

Preparing for family caregiving in specialized palliative home care: an ongoing process.

Objective: Family caregivers have been given increasing importance in palliative home care and face a great responsibility as caregivers for patients suffering from incurable illness. Preparedness for caregiving has been found to moderate negative effects and promote well-being in family caregivers. The aim of our study was to explore family caregivers' own experiences of preparing for caregiving in specialized palliative home care.

Validation of the CPAP Habit Index-5: A Tool to Understand Adherence to CPAP Treatment in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Long-term adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is low among patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The potential role of "habit" in sustaining adherence to CPAP use has not been studied. This study aimed to establish the relevance of habit to CPAP adherence, via validation of an adaptation of the Self-Report Habit Index (the CPAP Habit Index-5; CHI-5).

Everyday life, healthcare, and self-care management among people with irritable bowel syndrome: an integrative review of qualitative research.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a commonly recognized chronic disease in all healthcare settings. This integrative review investigated current knowledge about adults' illness-related experiences of this disease from the perspectives of everyday life, healthcare, and self-care management. The overarching findings related to everyday life with irritable bowel syndrome were life-limiting experiences of the body-self as unfamiliar and of the body and symptoms as shameful and unpredictable.

Conceptual development of "at-homeness" despite illness and disease: a review.

Only one empirical study, the one by Zingmark, Norberg and Sandman published in 1995, explicitly focuses on at-homeness, the feeling of being metaphorically at-home, as a particular aspect of wellness. However, other studies reveal aspects of at-homeness, but if or how such aspects of at-homeness are related to each other is unclear. For this reason, the aim was to review Scandinavian nursing research related to at-homeness in the context of wellness-illness in severe and long-term conditions in order to take a step towards conceptual clarification of "at-homeness.

Communicating bodily changes: physicians' ways of enabling patient understanding in gastrointestinal cancer consultations.

Objective: To explore how physicians communicatively enable patients' understanding of bodily changes in gastrointestinal cancer care consultations.

Method: Two datasets were used. The first consisted of transcribed video-recorded palliative care consultations with three oncologists and six patients diagnosed with advanced gastrointestinal cancer, in the context of outpatient palliative care.

Development and validation of an arrhythmia-specific scale in tachycardia and arrhythmia with focus on health-related quality of life.

Background: Arrhythmias can cause a profoundly negative impact on a person's daily life, leading to impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Assessment of HRQOL can provide valuable information before, during, and after healthcare interventions for arrhythmias.

Objective: The aim was to develop and validate a disease-specific scale evaluating HRQOL in patients with different forms of arrhythmia.

Swedish nursing students' reasoning about emotionally demanding issues in caring for dying patients.

Aim: To describe nursing students' reasoning about emotionally demanding questions concerning the care of dying patients.

Methods: The Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying (FATCOD) Scale was completed by students at the beginning of their education, and there was great variation in the responses to five items. At a follow-up measurement in the second year, an open-ended question, 'How did you reason when completing this question?', was added to each of the these five items.

Meanings and experiential outcomes of bodily care in a specialist palliative context.

Objective: The objective of this study was to enhance the depth of existing knowledge about meanings and experiential outcomes of bodily care in the context of an inpatient specialist palliative setting.

Method: Interpretative phenomenology was chosen as the study sought to explore individuals' lived experiences related to bodily care. Nine participants (five women, four men) of various ages and with various metastasized cancers and bodily-care needs, all from one specialist palliative care ward, participated.