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Purpose: Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) are used for their aesthetic and performance-enhancing effects and are associated with physical and psychological side effects. Behavioural changes/side effects as mood swings, aggressiveness, depression, potency problems, anxiety, and emotional coldness have been reported by next of kin to people using AAS. Methods: This phenomenological study is based on the reflective lifeworld research approach. Interviews were conducted with twelve next of kin about their experiences of living close to persons using AAS. Results: Next of kin to persons using AAS are particularly vulnerable because they experience little opportunity to influence their situation. Their given and safe context is lost, and their lives are circumscribed by feelings of insecurity, fear, powerlessness, and grief. Feelings of loneliness develop when their problems are not noticed by others and support is lacking from family and society. Conclusions: Our research adds important knowledge on how the use of AAS affects next of kin. Understanding is required to approach the lifeworld of next of kin with flexibility and empathy in their difficulties and vulnerability. Healthcare professionals and other concerned professions need to be aware of next of kin existential needs to be able to meet and support them in their life situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Today people can live a long time with a chronic cancer diagnosis, and it affects the entire family. Family members to patients in palliative care often have to leave valued occupations due to lack of time and energy, while new roles are forced upon them, potentially affecting their health. Objective: To explore occupational balance, needs and roles among family members to persons in palliative care. Methods: Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with family members to terminally ill persons enrolled to specialized palliative care. A qualitative content analysis guided the data collection and analysis. Result: An overarching theme Striving for control while being in the disease, and two categories Changing roles and occupations in the family; and Handling emotions in the end of life emerged from the data. Conclusion: The findings suggest that family members could benefit from strategies to maintain valued roles and occupations, and that palliative care provision need to develop new ways to take family members needs into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To describe how nurses communicate with older patients and their relatives in a department of medicine for older people in western Sweden. Background: Communication is an essential tool for nurses when working with older patients and their relatives, but often patients and relatives experience shortcomings in the communication exchanges. They may not receive information or are not treated in a professional way. Good communication can facilitate the development of a positive meeting and improve the patient's health outcome. Design: An ethnographic design informed by the sociocultural perspective was applied. Methods: Forty participatory observations were conducted and analysed during the period October 2015–September 2016. The observations covered 135 hours of nurse–patient–relative interaction. Field notes were taken, and 40 informal field conversations with nurses and 40 with patients and relatives were carried out. Semistructured follow‐up interviews were conducted with five nurses. Results: In the result, it was found that nurses communicate with four different voices: a medical voice described as being incomplete, task‐oriented and with a disease perspective; a nursing voice described as being confirmatory, process‐oriented and with a holistic perspective; a pedagogical voice described as being contextualised, comprehension‐oriented and with a learning perspective; and a power voice described as being distancing and excluding. The voices can be seen as context‐dependent communication approaches. When nurses switch between the voices, this indicates a shift in the orientation or situation. Conclusion: The results indicate that if nurses successfully combine the voices, while limiting the use of the power voice, the communication exchanges can become a more positive experience for all parties involved and a good nurse–patient–relative communication exchange can be achieved. Relevance to clinical practice: Working for improved communication between nurses, patients and relatives is crucial for establishing a positive nurse–patient–relative relationship, which is a basis for improving patient care and healthcare outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To explore and describe the content of the communication exchanges between nurses, patients and their relatives in a department of medicine for older people in western Sweden. Background: Information, messages and knowledge are constantly being communicated between nurses, older patients and relatives in the healthcare sector. The quality of communication between them has a major influence on patient outcomes. A prerequisite for good care to be given and received is that there is mutual understanding between the parties involved. Design: An ethnographic study was informed by a sociocultural perspective. Method: Data were collected through 40 participatory observations of meetings between nurses and older patients and/or relatives which covered 135 hr of nurse‐patient‐relative interaction, field notes, 40 field conversations with 24 nurses and 40 field conversations with patients (n = 40) and relatives (n = 26). Five semi‐structured interviews were conducted with nurses. An ethnographic analysis was performed. Results: The analysis identified three categories of content of the communication exchanges: medical content focusing on the patient's medical condition, personal content focusing on the patient's life story and explanatory content focusing on the patient's health and nursing needs. The content is influenced by the situation and context. Conclusions: Nurses would benefit from more awareness and understanding of the importance of the communication content and of the value of asking the didactic questions (how, when, what and why) to improve the patients’ and relatives’ understanding of the information exchanges and to increase patient safety. Relevance to clinical practice: Nurses can use the communication content to create conditions enabling them to obtain a holistic view of the patient's life history and to develop an appropriate person‐centred care plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous research, no uniform picture emerged of the role of relatives in the meeting between an elderly patient and a physician. Knowledge about relatives' experiences of the meeting between an elderly patient and a physician will help healthcare practitioners better understand the role of relatives during the meeting and how practitioners can assist relatives in assuming their supporting role more efficiently. The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of relatives of meeting with the physician in a hospital setting when an elderly patient is discharged from hospital care to home care, in order to identify aspects that may facilitate relatives in taking up their role in a more efficient manner. This descriptive and exploratory study is based on 20 interviews with relatives. The result shows that the physician's communication style influences the meeting between the relative, the elderly patient, and the physician, and that this style is the result of power and interaction. A trustful relationship during the meeting between the relative and the physician can increase the relative's feeling of confidence with the healthcare organization and treatment of the elderly patient. The relative has an important supporting role in the care for the elderly family member, both in the hospital and the home setting. It is likely that the relative's value as a resource, for both the patient and the physician, increases as the relative experiences feelings of confidence in the meeting with the physician. It is therefore of value to increase our knowledge about the conditions and circumstances facilitating and/or hampering the meeting between the relative and the physician. The result stresses the importance of encouraging relatives to participate in the meeting. Physicians need more guidance and training in communication skills, respectful demeanor, and collaboration while meeting the relatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Relatives of a person suffering from cancer risk being affected both physically and psychologically. Blogging has become increasingly popular as a forum for communicating experiences, but few studies have focused on what blogging about a relative's cancer journey means to the author. Aim: To illuminate relatives' experiences of blogging when a family member is in the end-of-life phase of cancer. Method: Telephone interviews were conducted with 12 people about their experiences of blogging during and after their family member's illness. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Findings: Blogging facilitated everyday life, introduced the relatives to new friends with similar experiences, helped them in their grief process, and helped them to preserve memories. The negative aspects were being misunderstood and publicly criticised as well as the feeling of providing readers with 'reality show' entertainment. Conclusion: Blogging was seen as a complement to professional care that contributed to the prevention of ill health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of familial database search as a crime-solving tool has been increasingly recognized by forensic scientists. As an enhancement to the existing familial search approach on single source cases, this article presents our current progress in exploring the potential use of familial search to mixture cases. A novel method was established to predict the outcome of the search, from which a simple strategy for determining an appropriate scale of investigation by the police force is developed. Illustrated by an example using Swedish data, our approach is shown to have the potential for assisting the police force to decide on the scale of investigation, thereby achieving desirable crime-solving rate with reasonable cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discharge process (DP) is full of well-known risks, and a comprehensive and well-executed DP is especially important for older people with multiple health problems and continuing care needs, as well as for their relatives. Few studies focus on the experiences with the DP by older people in need of home care nursing and their relatives. Therefore, the aim was to deepen the understanding of the DP as a phenomenon described by older people, their relatives, and care professionals. The method is an excursus of the findings of two previously published research studies. By using the Reflective Lifeworld Research approach, the empirical findings were further interpreted with lifeworld theory. The results describe the essential meaning of the phenomenon of DP in relation to healthcare needs. The illness and the DP can be viewed as a course of action where the familiar becomes unfamiliar for older people and their relatives, entailing an insecure future existence characterized by the experience of being in-between. The DP is marked by bodily and existential needs. The older persons and their relatives are lost in the hospital context and trying to influence life and adapt to life circumstances, while being relentlessly dependent on care professionals. Care professionals work from both an organizational and a medical approach. Disharmony and disagreement seem to arise easily among the professionals regarding the planning negatively affecting the patients and their relatives. More efforts are needed in the DP to empower older people and their relatives to go on with their life at home. The caring practice needs to more clearly meet and address the individual needs of older people and their relatives and their understanding of their illness. It needs to give them lifeworld and life goals to alleviate their suffering and to help them adjust to their new situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal assistance is a type of home care common to many countries even though entitlement and legislative framework may vary from country to country. At present, there exists no knowledge about the family members' experiences of such assistance; therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate family members' experiences of personal assistance given to a relative of working age with a functional disability. Twenty-five family members who had a relative with a severe neurological disease in Sweden were interviewed about the significance of personal assistance, and the qualitative interviews were subjected to qualitative latent content analysis. The overall findings verify the close connection between the family members' experiences and their perception of the quality of the caring relationship between the personal assistant and the person with disability. The main finding was an appreciation of the personal assistance on the part of the family members. However, in situations where the encounter between the assistant and the relative with disability was perceived negatively, the family members experienced great anxiety. The shortcomings were the inability to maintain a private life with assistance and the limitation of choice because of the shortage of personal assistants. Beyond these general findings, this study found that personal assistance was experienced by the family members in terms of dignity and empowering care. This theme was generated from seven subthemes: Insight into private life, Security through the close relation, Social life through freedom of movement, Influence over the organisation of assistance, Self-determination and understanding, Friendship and mutual respect and Adaption to the dependency on assistance. The findings indicate that responsible officials, work leaders and assistants need constantly to improve the implementation of the law. In such efforts, the experiences of family members described in this study are a source of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. To describe relatives’ perceived participation in discharge planning for patients with stroke and identify correlates to perceived participation. Background. Stroke affects both patients and their relatives and previous research shows that relatives were often dissatisfied with their perceived involvement in discharge planning and the information they get. Design. Prospective cross-sectional study. Methods. The study comprised 152 consecutively enrolled relatives (mean age = 60·8 years) of acute stroke patients admitted to a stroke unit in southern Sweden during 2003–2005. Data were collected through interviews 2–3 weeks after discharge using ‘Relative’s Questionnaire about Participation in Discharge planning’. This instrument measures perceived participation in three subscales: R–Information–Illness, R–Information–Care/support, and R–Goals and Needs. The Overall Rating of Relative’s Perceived Participation in Discharge Planning was measured by a visual analogue scale (VAS) (1–10 score). Results. Among the relatives, 56–68% reported positively according to R–Information–Illness, but 46–53% perceived that they did not receive any information about care/medication/rehabilitation/support. About 80% perceived no participation at all in goals and needs. The mean value of the VAS was 3·89 (SD 3·40) score. Regression analyses revealed that longer stay at hospital, patients with higher education, and relatives of female patients and female relatives were associated with relatives’ perceptions of higher participation in discharge planning. Conclusions. Relatives perceived that they needed more information and knowledge about stroke and care/medication/rehabilitation/support. They also needed to be more involved in goal-setting and in identifying patient needs. Professionals should take into consideration these associated variables to improve relatives’ perceived participation. Relevance to clinical practice. Clinicians should give more attention to the altered situation of stroke patients’ relatives when planning for continuing care and when setting postdischarge goals for the patients. The professionals need to develop strategies to involve relatives in sharing information, goal-setting and needs assessment in discharge planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary • Registered Nurses (RNs) working in nursing homes in Sweden have obligations towards the residents' relatives, besides the care of residents. Relatives' involvement and satisfaction with the care partly depend on their contacts and communication with the staff. • This study aimed to explore and describe RNs' views and experiences of relatives of residents who live in nursing homes. • Open interviews were conducted with 19 RNs at three nursing homes. The verbatim-transcribed interviews were subjected to qualitative content analysis. • Relatives were seen as a resource (with some restrictions) and nice, although demanding. The RNs saw relatives as part of their work – a part that could be time-consuming and had low priority. • Interviewees noticed a difference between young and old relatives, and between female and male relatives. • A large proportion of accounts could be related to issues about communication and interpersonal relationships with relatives. • Building a trusting relationship with relatives may result in them being involved in residents' care and thus giving the nurses time rather than consuming time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]