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Healthcare providers can facilitate adolescent and parental decision-making about the optimal timing for SAPT introduction. Success with SAPT requires exploration of adolescent and parental expectations for SAPT as well as the degree to which parents have previously fostered their adolescent's involvement in and responsibility for diabetes management.

Qualitative nursing research into the experience of family members caring for a dying loved one has been limited. This study used a phenomenological approach to explore this experience. The pattern of caring for a dying loved one and its intertwined dimensions were described. Caregivers felt a sense of helplessness that was associated with illness progression, their inability to relieve pain and discomfort, and decision-making related to patient admission to a palliative care unit. Lack of support from health professionals and having to face personal limits were found to accelerate the decision to admit a patient. The role of a support person involved with the caregiver was also considered and found to be an area worthy of further investigation. Health professionals must provide information and support tailored to the caregivers' needs as they change along a patient's illness trajectory.

Caring for patients in pain is a pivotal function of nursing practice. In particular, pain control is a primary concern of hospice nurses in order to ensure comfort in the terminal phase of the person's life, and also for nurses in intensive therapy units caring for patients who may have substantial pain related either to pathologic conditions or treatment interventions and who have difficulty communicating their pain. This paper reports on a study which aimed to identify and compare the knowledge and the perceived adequacy and acquisition of knowledge of intensive therapy and hospice nurses pertaining to the theoretical, pharmacological and non-pharmacological aspects of pain and its management using multiple-choice, short-answer and open-ended questions. The sample consisted of 52 intensive therapy and 48 hospice nurses who were further divided into beginners and experts. The findings indicated that although the hospice nurses received higher knowledge scores than the intensive therapy nurses, both groups demonstrated lack of knowledge in specific content areas. In addition, the findings demonstrated few differences between the beginners and experts. The subjects, in general, were not confident about their knowledge of analgesics, nor did they believe that their basic nursing education had prepared them adequately to care for patients in pain. The working environment and clinical work in hospital since qualification were perceived by the subjects to be the most influential experiences in learning about pain and its management.

This study described donor and nondonor family experiences with donation as well as lasting impacts. Addressing unanswered questions should be done in a place sufficiently remote from the donation event to enhance the family members' understanding and well-being.

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