International journal of palliative nursing
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The purpose of this qualitative study, using a modified grounded theory approach, was to investigate how palliative care nurses care for people from cultural backgrounds other than their own. Ten palliative care nurses were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. ⋯ They made intense efforts to transcend both cultural and language barriers. The nurses gave of themselves when caring for the patients, but their endeavours were impeded by limited resources and a lack of education. The theory of cross-cultural endeavour in palliative nursing was developed to explain how palliative care nurses care for patients from cultures other than their own.
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Although a number of successful adult combined pain and palliative care programmes exist worldwide, integrated paediatric pain and palliative care services are rare. This article reviews epidemiology, definition, symptom prevalence and myths in paediatric palliative care. It then describes the development of the Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care Programme at the Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, USA. ⋯ It is the only paediatric hospice provider in the state of Minnesota. One of the advantages of an integrated Pain and Palliative Care Programme such as the one described in this article, may be the provision of care in a continuum from acute, chronic or recurrent pain to palliative care and hospice care. This example shows, that integrated paediatric pain medicine and palliative care programmes can be successfully implemented in a children's hospital setting.
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A small exploratory study was conducted to identify the psychosocial needs of children facing the death and subsequent bereavement of a parent from cancer. The focus was on the palliative phase of care through the bereavement period with the aim of identifying the best way forward in further developing a community-based service for children in Fife. This paper selectively reviews the literature related to children's and families' needs when facing and dealing with the death of a parent, bringing into focus some of the work available to inform thinking and planning in this area. It then describes the methods used to conduct this exploratory study and reports the issues which will be considered as a basis for future service development.
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Recognition of the importance of 'cultural competence' is now central to health care policy and to nurse education and training across the international spectrum. Detailed engagement with models of cultural competence is comparatively recent in palliative care nursing. This article presents the findings from a development project on elders and carers from 'minority ethnic' groups, funded by the Department of Health, to increase awareness of palliative care and to improve understanding of the needs of these groups of service users. ⋯ It draws attention to the complicated relationships between cultural knowledge and practice and to the non-rational and visceral dimensions of intercultural care. These aspects of nursing are marginalised in current approaches to cultural competence, which emphasise the rational acquisition and application of cultural knowledge and skills by practitioners. It is suggested that recognition of these marginalised experiences can contribute to the development of new approaches to intercultural nursing that are also more attuned to the ethos and values of palliative care.