Feeding difficulties in older patients who are suffering from dementia present problems with balancing conflicting ethical principles. They have been considered by several writers in recent years, and the views of nursing and care staff have been studied in different contexts. The present study used focus groups to explore the way in which nursing and care staff in a National Health Service trust deal with conflict between ethical principles in this area. Three focus groups were convened, one each from the staff of three wards caring for patients with dementia. Case histories were discussed and transcripts analysed. It emerged that staff were aware of making fine judgements of utility concerning the spectrum of feeding methods available. Informants gave some weight to the principle of autonomy, but sought to balance that against their commitment to care. In explaining their perspectives, informants gave more weight to personal attitudes and trust culture than to professional ethics
The experience of auditory hallucinations has been described as a form of 'inner relationship'. Recent research has focused on the common dominant/subordinate form that voice and voice hearer can share, with voices being experienced as dominant, powerful and shaming. However, the way men shame and derogate men, and women shame and derogate women may differ in everyday social contexts. This difference may also be important in the relationship of voice hearers to their voices. This study used a semi-structured interview to explore male voices heard by men and by women and female voices heard by men and women. For both men and women, male voices commonly tended to be dominant. In line with previous work on shame, themes of sexual and non-sexual shaming were common. Voices could also issue warnings and commands. The general experience of a dominant voice was hostile but participants noted that the degree of hostility changed with the degree of stress in other aspects of their lives. Further work on derogations and threats of dominant voices may reveal further subtle distinctions between voice and voice hearer in regard to gender.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.