Hope and chronic illness: The meaning of hope and the ways of fostering hope experienced by chronically ill Finnish people

Exploration of Hope Among Young Adults with Cancer in Malaysia

Purpose: Hope is vital for cancer patients to cope with their illnesses. It is positively associated with better health outcomes, quality of life, and daily functioning. However, restoring hope after a cancer diagnosis can be challenging, especially for young adult cancer patients. This research aimed to investigate hope among young adults with cancer throughout their cancer experience and the exploration of hope preservation in these individuals. Methods: This qualitative study involved 14 young adults recruited from a closed Facebook group. The median age of the participants was 30.5 years (range 20-39 years), and their median survival year was 3 years (range 1-18 years from the date of diagnosis). Semistructured interviews and a thematic analysis were performed to identify the major themes that emerged from these interviews. Results: The findings identified that young adults expressed hopes for cancer advocacy, good physical and mental health, ease in the afterlife, and uncertain hopes due to thoughts of death. Three areas that influenced their hope are: (1) active hope with cancer peers; (2) cancer prognosis and hope; and (3) hope comes from prayer. Their cultural and religious beliefs influenced the various forms of hope and affected their experiences with cancer. In addition, this study discovered that not all positive communication with their physician resulted in hope. Conclusion: These findings provide important insight to health care professionals (HCPs) by encouraging young adults to discuss hope and improving the existing oncology social work-based intervention. This study suggests that hope is essential for chronic illness patients and should be supported continuously during and after treatments.

CABG and PTCA Patients' Expectations of Informational Support in Health-Related Quality of Life Themes and Adequacy of Information in 1-Year Follow-Up

The purpose of this study was to describe coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) patients' need for nursing informational support in health-related (HRQoL) items before and after coronary artery procedures. As well we present the adequacy of informational support from patients' viewpoint. The study sample (N=625) consisted of consecutive male (N=439) and female (N=176) patients with CAD who were treated with elective CABG or PTCA. The data were collected by structured interview before coronary artery procedures and by mailed questionnaires 6 and 12 months afterwards in 1999-2001. Patients in both groups reported needing the most information about recovery and psychosocial functioning before and after the treatments. Single HRQoL items identified that the expectations of women and men differed during the follow-up period. Women in the PTCA group needed more informational support than men before procedures, while men needed more support afterwards. Our results suggest that the content of informational support is different for male and female patients before and after the coronary artery procedures. The effects of nursing interventions and instruments for measuring change in patients' outcome resulting from nursing interventions should be developed further.

Hope in palliative care: from narcissism to self-transcendence in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

INTRODUCTION

The concept of hope in palliative care is an important and neglected area of research. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive degenerative motor neuron disease, offers an excellent opportunity to study this construct as the illness is virtually always fatal. Our research explored the meaning of hope in individuals with ALS.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Sixteen patients (13 males and 3 females; mean age, 54) were interviewed during routine clinic visits to the Forbes Norris MDA/ALS Research Center at California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco. The Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) Scale and the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) and a Hope Scale were administered. Themes of hope were identified and categorized.

RESULTS

Hope categories included: (1) hope for a cure, (2) social support, (3) search for information, (4) spiritual beliefs, (5) limiting the impact, (6) adapting to changing capacities, (7) living in the moment, and (8) self-transcendence. The relationship between hope and the FVC value and individual as well as overall ALSFRS-R ratings were examined, and none were significant.

DISCUSSION

Individuals varied in their capacity to cope with their illness unrelated to their physical ability. Themes ranged from a primary focus on the self to one of heightened concern for others, on continuum from narcissism to altruism. Respondents cited using a number of categories of hope (mean=5).

CONCLUSION

Patients draw upon a variety of mechanisms to sustain hope when facing chronic disease, including hope for a cure, support from others, seeking information, spiritual beliefs, limiting the impact, adapting to changing capacities, living in the moment, and transcending the self. The palliative care team can play an important role by promoting discussions regarding hopefulness and its many forms in individuals with ALS.

The meaning of hope and generic caring practices to nurture hope in a rural village in the Dominican Republic

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of hope and generic caring practices to nurture hope among people of a rural village in the Dominican Republic. Ethnonursing methods were used to gather and analyze data from which a definition of hope for this group of people was developed: "Hope is an essential but dynamic life force that grows out of faith in God, is supported by relationships, resources and work, and results in the energy necessary to work for a desired future. Hope gives meaning and happiness." The information obtained also demonstrated that hope interacts with nearly all domains in the Sunrise Model. Generic care practices discovered among this population included working together, advising each other to work hard, and sharing hope itself. Implications for further research are discussed.

Exploration of the concept of hope in the Dominican Republic

An ethnonursing study explored What is the meaning of hope (esperanza/esperar) to the Dominican people? What is the importance of the concept of hope to the people of the Dominican Republic? What are the universals and diversities in the meaning of hope for this cultural group and United States' (US) mainstream culture? Hope has been considered universal and recent research has demonstrated the effect of levels of hope or hopelessness on health. Nurse researchers have explored the meaning of hope to patients in the US and have developed instruments to measure levels of hope. However, little research has explored whether hope has different attributes in various cultural groups. From data gathered in a rural Dominican village, a definition of hope and its attributes were developed: 'Hope is an essential but dynamic life force that grows out of faith in God, is supported by relationships, resources and work, and results in the energy necessary to work for a desired future. Hope gives meaning and happiness'. This definition and its attributes were compared with definitions developed from research among mainstream US populations to propose universals and diversities of hope.