No abstract

To minimize these adverse experiences, nurses can support parents' ability to keep hope possible and thus to optimize their well-being by understanding, assessing, and supporting parental hope.

No abstract

The importance of hope in the participants' lives underscores the need to find ways to foster hope in this population. The findings also suggest that the hope experience of men may differ from the experience of women; therefore, strategies to foster hope in this population should be tailored to the male experience.

No abstract

Background The impact of a child s life‐limiting or life‐threatening illness is significant on parents who experience a great deal of emotional, physical, and spiritual upheaval. Hope has been identified as an important inner resource for parental caregivers. Specifically, parental hope has been described as having four subproceses including Accepting Reality, Establishing Control, Restructuring Hope, and Purposive Positive Thinking. Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to gather expert opinions from parents and formal care providers about the four subproceses essential to parental hope, to increase understanding of parental caregivers current support needs. As Phase one of a three‐phase study, the findings provided direction in the development of a theory‐based hope intervention. Design and Methods A Delphi study consisting of three rounds of survey questions and controlled feedback to experts was employed. Experts suggested strategies for each subprocess and ranked them in order of highest to lowest according to feasibility and effectiveness. Results Sixty‐eight experts consisting of parental caregivers of children diagnosed with life‐limiting or life‐threatening illnesses and those who care for them (community members, nurses, social workers, and physicians) were recruited to participate. Through three rounds of survey questions, response rates ranged from 92–97%. A consensus revealed eight major themes that support parental hope: Organize Basic Needs; Connect with Others; Prioritize Self‐care; Obtain Meaningful Information; Take Things Day by Day; Advocate for Parental Participation; Manifest Positivity; and Celebrate Milestones. Practice Implications This study identified a wide variety of psychosocial needs for parental caregivers. Results also offered direction for a theory‐based hope intervention while highlighting the need for additional research in this area. These results will provide the foundation for a booklet parents can work through in their journey of caring for a child with a life‐limiting or life‐threatening illness.

No abstract

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to develop an enhanced understanding of the experiences of parents who have children in treatment for cancer. Data collected from 16 parents (12 mothers and 4 fathers) were analyzed using Frank's dialogical narrative analysis. Findings demonstrated that parents' experiences were represented in chaos, restitution, and quest narratives. Each of these narratives was only one instance of a very complex and changing parental experience that cannot be understood in isolation from the others. The holistic understanding provided by these findings contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of parental experiences of their child's illness and highlights the need for health professionals to invite conversations about parents' illness experience and attend to the specific narrative type parents are presenting to support them adequately. Additional research is required to develop supportive approaches for each narrative which takes into account the complexities of parents' experiences.