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Objective: This study explores patient's experience during the first three months following a diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma.Methods: This study uses a grounded theory approach with semi-structured, face-toface interviews with ten patients during the first 3 months following diagnosis.

This paper reports on a research study of five patients diagnosed with mesothelioma. The study used a phenomenological approach to explore patients' lived experience using in-depth interviews. The findings identify that patients have many unmet psychosocial and emotional needs and that there was a lack of information provided to patients about specialist supportive and palliative care services. A number of the patients found specialist supportive care by chance rather than by referral. In addition, patients were involved in complex medico-legal matters in relation to asbestos exposure, and this was an additional burden for them and their spouse or carer. A feeling of social isolation was also reported and a number of patients would welcome the opportunity to meet with other people in the same situation as themselves. In conclusion, there is a lack of attention to the emotional needs of this group of patients, which means that supportive care resources are not being accessed in a timely and flexible manner.

Guidance was needed on children's developmental stages and how to communicate with children of different ages. In addition, guidance was needed on assessing family needs and access to up to date resources. To enable nurses to engage with the issue of children, strategies of peer support and further educational opportunities need to be implemented.

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Aim. This paper reports a study to develop a grounded theory to explain the experience of recovery following surgery for colorectal cancer.Background. Studies have adopted a biomedical framework to measure quliaty of

There is evidence that education in palliative care in the UK is somewhat patchy and that this important area of health care should be given a greater emphasis in the nursing curriculum. This article describes an evaluation of a palliative care module taken by a group of third year student nurses. The effect of the module was evaluated using the palliative care quiz for nursing (PCQN), administered at the beginning and at the end of the module. The results demonstrate that the students significantly increased their understanding of aspects of pain and symptom control. In particular, they became knowledgeable about adjuvant therapies and opioid use. In contrast to previous studies, the students rejected the 'fear of addiction' associated with opioid use. Deficits in knowledge included side-effects of codeine, use of sedation and the use of placebos. The results support the need to develop a compulsory module in palliative care that is formally assessed and includes a palliative care placement. This would enable comprehensive and systematic coverage of palliative care in the undergraduate nursing curriculum.