Support interventions offered to family members of a child treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplant: A scoping review.

A scoping review was conducted to explore support interventions for family members of a child treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Three databases (CINAHL, Embase, and Medline) were searched to answer the review question: What are the support interventions offered to family members of a child treated with HSCT and are they based on a family-centred care approach? Out of 665 screened articles, nine were selected for full review. Findings revealed two main types of family-centred support interventions: psychological face-to-face and technology-based interventions. The majority of interventions assisted in improving family members' psychological well-being and included a portion of the core concepts from the Institute for Patient and Family-Centered Care Model in their approach. Based on the review findings, interventions that incorporate family-centred care concepts can enhance the psychological well-being and quality of life of family members whose child is undergoing HSCT treatment.

Factors affecting attitudes towards caring for terminally ill patients among nursing students in Switzerland: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: Positive attitudes towards end-of-life care are essential among nursing students to adequately support terminally ill patients and enable students to feel confident about providing end-of-life care. This study aimed to determine nursing students' attitudes towards caring for terminally ill patients, as well as the associations between these attitudes and year of study, exposure to terminally ill people, self-perceived nursing skills and subjective impact of instruction. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: A health sciences school in Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: All preparatory students, first-year nursing students and third-year nursing students were invited to participate; 178 agreed to participate. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Attitudes towards terminally ill patients were assessed using the Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale, Form B (FATCOD, Form B), as the primary outcome. Secondary measures were gender, age, year of study, number of terminally ill persons encountered, self-perceived palliative care nursing skills and subjective impact of instruction. RESULTS: Mean FATCOD, Form B score was 117.7 (SD: 9.8, median: 118.0). Better attitudes towards terminally ill patients were significantly associated with being aged 24-26 years (ß=6.97, 95% CI 2.00 to 11.95, p=0.006), year of study (ß=3.47, 95% CI 1.69 to 5.25, p<0.001), professional encounters with terminally ill patients (ß=3.59, 95% CI 2.23 to 4.95, p<0.001) and self-perceived palliative care nursing competence (ß=1.23, 95% CI 0.41 to 2.04; p=0.003). In the multivariate analysis, professionally encountering terminally ill patients remained significant (ß=3.00; 95% CI 1.43 to 4.57; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Nursing students' attitudes towards caring for terminally ill patients were positive and improved as their year of study progressed. Professional exposure to terminally ill patients was the strongest factor, followed by private encounters, self-perceived palliative care nursing skills, year of study and age.

[Dying well seen in the light of self-transcendence and transition : two theories of care helpful to nurses]. / Le « bien mourir ¼ perçu dans une approche de l'auto-transcendance et de la transition : deux théories de soin utiles pour l'infirmière.

Accompanying a dying person up to and at the actual moment of death is a duty that often leaves carers at a loss. We shall show how far theoretical nursing knowledge can help practitioners who accompany the end of life by applying two theories of care : Reed's theory of self-transcendence and Meleis's theory of transition. Our interpretation of the theory of self-transcendence designates three points of reference in the concept of dying well. The first relates to the overtures prompted by the vulnerability that the context of dying inspires. The second concerns the capacity of the patient to summon up intrapersonal, interpersonal and transpersonal strategies, and the third considers the benefits when self-transcendence is achieved. The theory of transition similarly presents three points of reference. The first is based on informing the patient about palliative care and telling him or her the truth about the prognosis. The second relates to coordinating the interprofessional team that is looking after the dying person. The last criterion is that the palliative care should be started at a suitable moment. This makes it possible to educate a patient who wishes to die at home and thus create an environment favourable to the transition.