Background:Spiritual distress is prevalent in advanced disease, but often neglected, resulting in unnecessary suffering. Evidence to inform spiritual care practices in palliative care is limited.Aim:To explore spiritual care needs, experiences, preferences and research priorities in an international sample of patients with life-limiting disease and family caregivers.Design:Focus group study.Setting/participants:Separate patient and caregiver focus groups were conducted at 11 sites in South Africa, Kenya, South Korea, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland and Poland. Discussions were transcribed, translated into English and analysed thematically.Results:A total of 74 patients participated: median age 62 years; 53 had cancer; 48 were women. In total, 71 caregivers participated: median age 61 years; 56 were women. Two-thirds of participants were Christian. Five themes are described: patients’ and caregivers’ spiritual concerns, understanding of spirituality and its role in illness, views and experiences of spiritual care, preferences regarding spiritual care, and research priorities. Participants reported wide-ranging spiritual concerns spanning existential, psychological, religious and social domains. Spirituality supported coping, but could also result in framing illness as punishment. Participants emphasised the need for staff competence in spiritual care. Spiritual care was reportedly lacking, primarily due to staff members’ de-prioritisation and lack of time. Patients’ research priorities included understanding the qualities of human connectedness and fostering these skills in staff. Caregivers’ priorities included staff training, assessment, studying impact, and caregiver’s spiritual care needs.Conclusion:To meet patient and caregiver preferences, healthcare providers should be able to address their spiritual concerns. Findings should inform patient- and caregiver-centred spiritual care provision, education and research.

The project shows unmet needs among elderly ED patients, and the feasibility of rapid screening and referral using a quality improvement approach. At its peak, the project accounted for half the referrals to the palliative care consultation service.

Studies have documented high degrees of burden and negative outcomes for caregivers. The present study sought to develop a brief instrument for caregiver burden. An item pool was administered to 102 caregivers of patients with chronic illnesses (cancer, 55%; neurological, 15%; psychiatric 12%), along with measures of caregiver burden and quality of life. Item reduction was accomplished through content review and factor analysis. This yielded a 14-item Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers (BASC) and an eight-item subscale measuring negative personal impact (NPI). Cronbach's alpha was 0.70 for the BASC and 0.80 for the NPI. Construct validity was confirmed by appropriate patterns of intercorrelation with other measures of caregiver burden. Higher burden was found for caregivers expected to have higher levels of distress (adult children caring for parents, P<0.005; female caregivers, P=0.035). These results support the validity of the BASC as a brief instrument for caregiver burden.

OBJECTIVES To provide an overview of research and practice related to the physical well-being of oncology caregivers. DATA SOURCES Literature retrieved through the PUBMED and CINAHL databases. CONCLUSION Caregivers play an important role in supporting people with cancer at every stage of the illness trajectory. Because caregiving is inherently stressful, caregivers should be routinely included in the assessment and treatment of patients with cancer. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE Oncology nurses are uniquely positioned to play a vital role in recognizing caregiver strain and intervening to break the cycle of unremitting physical and psychosocial burden.

This national mail survey assessed pain-related knowledge and subjective competence of a random sample of home care nurses across the United States. Other study objectives were to examine the relationship between nurse characteristics, knowledge and perceived competence, and assess continuing education practices. On average, the 1236 nurses scored only 56% of the items correctly, demonstrating stronger knowledge in pain assessment than treatment. Respondents reported most confidence in patient and family communication, discussion of advance directives and pain assessment. The lowest competence was reported in sophisticated pain treatment techniques. The relationship between knowledge and subjective competence was found to be highly significant. Sixty-three percent of the sample displayed a realistic assessment of their pain management knowledge, while 37% under- or overestimated what they knew. It is challenging to engage the latter group who overestimate their competence but score low on pain management knowledge. Educational strategies need to differentiate these two groups and target the audience appropriately.

Objective: This project had two questions: (a)To what extent did clients improve after participation in the cancer support groups? and (b) What was the relationship between outcome and clients' perceptions of group process? Method: Clients participating in 12 cancer support groups were administered the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a consumer satisfaction questionnaire, and a self-report version of Yalom's Curative Factors Questionnaire. Results: BSI results pointed to statistically significant reductions in emotional distress. About one third of the clients moved into the normative distribution of the BSI from the distressed distribution. The group processes with the highest mean scores were cohesion, existential factors, instillation of hope, altruism, and universality. There were no significant correlations between BSI scores and group processes. Conclusion: These results are discussed in terms of the need to identify both the outcome and process of support group participation as well as establish an empirical link between the two.

The 41 consensus-derived competencies for generalist-level palliative social work may inform the development of training curricula and standards for high-quality care.

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