[Relatives or 'Zugehörige'? - An attempt to explore the meaning of terms]

Relatives or 'Zugehörige'? - An attempt to explore the meaning of terms Abstract.

BACKGROUND

Societal change has an impact on social coexistence and it is associated with pluralisation of family patterns, altered kinship relations and a greater significance of friendship relations. This is also reflected in familial situations with occurring care needs and the professional carers' perception of these developments has found its linguistic equivalent in terms like 'relatives' or 'Zugehörige'. These and further terms used in nursing communication will be explored in this article.

AIM

The objective of this article is to determine the meanings of terms used in German-speaking nursing literature for close persons of care receivers.

METHODS

For this purpose an explicating content analysis was conducted and etymological, juridical and social-scientific definitions were compared to the apprehension of professional care givers.

RESULTS

The findings show a wide range of terminology combined with a varying comprehension of these terms challenging their appropriateness for professional nursing communication.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on these findings a definition of the concept 'relatives' is brought up for discussion as an attempt to contribute to a more coherent intraprofessional comprehension.

[Men as caregivers for their wives - two phenomenological studies of the experiences of male primary caregivers in home care arrangements. Part II: men as caregivers for their wives suffering from dementia]

BACKGROUND

In Germany, men participate more and more in the extensive process of caring for their relatives.

AIM

Focus of the second study are husbands caring in home care for their wives suffering from dementia. Objective of the present study is to analyse the following questions, with focus on caring husbands: Firstly, how do caring husbands experience caring for their wives suffering from dementia? And secondly, how do they organise daily life?

METHOD

Narrative interviews with ten caring husbands were conducted. Analysis was performed using a modified phenomenological-interpretative approach as described by Diekelmann (1992).

RESULTS

Seven central issues evolved: "Dementia is a mischievous disease …" (disease as lingering crisis); "But there is a commitment …" (relationship); "Quarrel, that's not resolved without efforts …" (conflict); "Nothing's left from that …" (loss); "The amount of care, it didn't decrease, it's getting more …" (care); "The world's getting smaller …" (limitations); "I don't dislike it when someone's around supporting me …" (support). "Being bonded" emerged as a constitutive pattern, according to which caring husbands perceive their own life situation.

CONCLUSIONS

Caring husbands perceive and organise their wives' care situation individually. This includes their evaluation of professional assistance offers. Our findings point out the clear need for different offers of professional care givers when collaborating with caring husbands. Further research should focus on individual (long-time) care courses as well as reasons for declining professional assistance offers.

[Men as caregivers for their wives - two phenomenological studies of the experiences of male primary caregivers in home arrangements. Part 1: men as caregivers for their wives after stroke]

BACKGROUND

In Germany, men participate more and more in the extensive process of caring for their relatives. The ongoing discourse in nursing sciences, however, reflects poorly on this increasing number of male principal caregivers.

AIM

Objective of the present study is to analyse the following questions, with focus on caring husbands: Firstly, how do caring husbands experience caring for their wives after stroke? And secondly, how do they organise daily life?

METHOD

Narrative interviews with ten caring husbands were conducted. Analysis was performed using a modified phenomenological-interpretative approach as described by Diekelmann (1992).

RESULTS

Six central issues evolved: "I never thought something like that'd happen to us …" (disease as acute crisis); "I see her just the way she was when we first met …" (relationship); "… since then I got her in home care." (care); "… this work, it's never been easy" (work and burden); "This new situation, well, you've got to adapt …" (adaptation); "… because I do need some time for myself!" (support and relief). "Being responsible" emerged as a constitutive pattern, according to which caring husbands perceive their own life situation.

CONCLUSION

Professional nurses should take this constitutive pattern seriously and should align their work to it when collaborating with male principal care givers. For this purpose, further research is needed to develop new approaches to this special situation and its implications.

["Hospice concerns the whole person!"--voluntary hospice helpers supporting dementia patients]

Due to demographic change and increase of dementia there is an obvious need of voluntary hospice helpers who support dementia patients. The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the experience and challenges of hospice volunteers supporting dementia patients. The results were taken into account in the development of a training course. Ten narrative interviews were conducted with voluntary hospice helpers. The audiotaped interviews were analysed according to an interpretative phenomenological method. Three main issues, each consisting of three catagories, emerged from the interview data. The voluntary hospice helpers experience different facets and the progress of dementia ("to experience the process"). They provide a pleasant change in everyday life of and express their solidarity with dementia patients ("to create a good atmosphere"). They empathetically support dementia patients without expecting anything in return and they benefit from their work with dying people ("to put one's own interests last"). Voluntary hospice helpers offer important support for dementia patients but their role in the interdisciplinary team has to be defined. Training courses are useful to improve interaction and reflection skills.

«Für mich ist Lebensqualität, selbständig handeln zu können...» Wie erleben COPD-Patienten ihre Heimbeatmung? Eine qualitative Studie

Die chronisch obstruktive Lungenerkrankung (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD) umfasst die chronisch obstruktive Bronchitis, das Lungenemphysem sowie deren Kombination. Im fortgeschrittenen Stadium der Erkrankung stellt die Heimbeatmung bei festgelegten Indikationen eine Therapieoption dar. Die Auswirkungen dieser Beatmungsform auf die Lebensqualität der Betroffenen sind bei der derzeitigen unzureichenden Datenlage nicht sicher beurteilbar. Ebenfalls unklar bleibt die Rolle professioneller Pflege in der Langzeitversorgung dieser Patientengruppe. Unter Verwendung eines qualitativen Forschungsansatzes wird deshalb Einblick gewonnen in die Lebenswelt der Patienten. Die phänomenologisch interpretativ-hermeneutische Analyse von 15 narrativen Interviews, die mit heimbeatmeten COPD-Patienten zu Hause geführt wurden, zeigt, dass die Betroffenen, obwohl ihre Krankheit stetig fortschreitet, durch die Heimbeatmung eine große Hilfe und Erleichterung erfahren, sie können ihr Leben wieder selbständiger gestalten. Das Leitthema «Neue Eigenständigkeit erlangen» wird als eine positive Auswirkung auf die Lebensqualität der Betroffenen aus den zentralen Themen «Das Atmen erleben», «Seine Möglichkeiten nutzen», «Am Leben teilnehmen» und «Damit leben müssen» herausgearbeitet. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Aufgaben professioneller Pflege insbesondere im Bereich der Beratung, Anleitung und Begleitung liegen. Hier sind weitere Forschungsarbeiten erforderlich, um Interventionen zu evaluieren. Diese Arbeit ist daher auch als Grundlage für zukünftige quantitative Untersuchungen zu verstehen.

[Psychological stress conditions at an internal medicine intensive care unit. Analysis of a patient survey]

In an intensive therapy unit of internal medicine for the registration of the contendedness of the patients and the psychic problems of the patients a questioning was performed in the sense of a standardized interview. 55 patients were asked (30 males and 25 females). 89 per cent of the patients stated to have been understandably informed about their disease; 82 per cent said to have been given explanations as to the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic measures. Despite the altogether positive statements of the patients critical viewpoints were also the result which lead to changes.