Death studies
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Death and life co-exist in organ procurement surgery; untimely death for one provides hope for continued life for others. Drawing from interactionist theory, the impact of personal and environmental forces and functions specific to organ procurement surgery were examined. ⋯ Three core themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of the interviews: existential issues, coping strategies, and support for each other. Nurses spoke of ways in which they contribute to this challenging work and draw on inner resources.
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The authors collected data on diagnosis, hospital course, and end-of life preparedness in patients who died in the intensive care unit (ICU) with '"full code" status (defined as receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation), compared with those who didn't. Differences were analyzed using binary and stepwise logistic regression. ⋯ Patients dying with full code status were more likely to have previously coded (p < .0001), and had more central lines (p = .03). Implications are discussed.
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A qualitative study was conducted to address staff's views of bereavement care in a large hospital setting. Two focus-groups and 1 interview were attended by 21 self-selected staff. The qualitative analysis yielded the following: (a) a staff training program within a structured bereavement care service may give staff a sense of confidence and pride in this aspect of their work; (b) a whole-hospital approach to bereavement care may offer an alternative model to individual clinical services; (c) the question is raised as to whether the presence of a bereavement co-ordinator helps contain staff anxiety and other painful emotions generated by contact with the dying and bereaved; and (d) the potential role of ancillary staff in bereavement care warrants more study.
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This study examined end-of-life planning and whether common characteristics predicted completion of these decisions. Participants in the Nebraska End-of-Life Survey were asked whether they had heard about or completed five plans: a health care power of attorney agreement, a living will, a last will and testament, funeral or burial preplanning, and organ and tissue donation. ⋯ This suggests that all of these decisions may be part of an integrated planning process at the end of life. Further, results from this study indicate that the role of religiosity, found in this study to predict both financial and health care planning, warrants further exploration.
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Family caregivers of physically and cognitively impaired older adults face multiple challenges when providing care, including responses to tangible and anticipated losses. However, little is known about the grief experiences of family caregivers and how these might differentially influence the care-related behaviors of spouses and adult children. The present study examined the longitudinal relationship between grief reactions in current spousal and adult-children caregivers (N = 72) and in-home respite utilization over 3 months. ⋯ Meuser, 2005) was used to assess the grief experiences of participants, and demonstrated good internal reliability among spousal and adult-child caregivers of older adults with a variety of cognitive and physical conditions. Although there was not an association between spouses' grief subscale scores and later respite use, adult children were more likely to use respite after reporting higher levels of grief reactions. This study contributes to our ongoing understanding of differences between spousal and adult-children caregivers of impaired older adults and also lends further support for the reliability and construct validity of the Heartfelt Sadness and Longing subscale of the Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory.