Bente Hoeck

Dealing with cancer: a meta-synthesis of patients' and relatives' experiences of participating in psychosocial interventions

&NA; The aim was to synthesise patients’ and relatives’ experiences of participating in a psychosocial intervention related to having cancer. The study was a meta‐synthesis inspired by Noblit & Hares ‘meta‐ethnography’ approach. We systematically searched six databases and included 33 studies in the meta‐synthesis. Inclusion criteria were qualitative studies with relevance to the synthesis topic. The meta‐synthesis conceptualised the way in which participants develop their way of living with cancer, and the role psychosocial interventions play in helping them to live through the illness. Five themes symbolising the participants’ core experiences were identified: (1) Emotional relief and a sense of well‐being, (2) normalisation of experiences and a sense of control, (3) shared experience and a sense of community, (4) a safe place and (5) transformation and adaptability. The findings indicated that psychosocial interventions were used to try to deal with the changes in the human conditions caused by cancer. Sharing their experiences and forming social relationships helped the participants adapt to cancer. An existential perspective may provide a nuanced understanding of patients’ and relatives’ experiences of participating in psychosocial interventions.

Theoretical development in the context of nursing-The hidden epistemology of nursing theory

This article is about nursing theories, the development of nursing knowledge and the underlying, hidden epistemology. The current technical-economical rationality in society and health care calls for a specific kind of knowledge based on a traditional Western, Socratic view of science. This has an immense influence on the development of nursing knowledge. The purpose of the article was therefore to discuss the hidden epistemology of nursing knowledge and theories seen in a broad historical context and point to an alternative epistemology for a future context. It is a question about which nursing theories and what nursing knowledge should be developed in order to benefit patients and relatives of the future. We suggest that future knowledge development in nursing be developed in an interchange between theory and practice and guided by philosophy like a kind of pendulum where all three elements are treated as equals. We suggest a framework for the development of nursing knowledge based on a caring-ethical practice, a theory on life phenomena in suffering and relationship-based nursing, and thereby, we may be able to help patients to be cured, to recover, to be alleviated or comforted when suffering.

Narrative reviews - one way of integrating patients' and relatives' experiences in evidence-based psychosocial cancer rehabilitation

Conference Theme: Integrating Psycho-Oncology into Mainstream Cancer Care; From Research to Action

Involvement of patients with lung and gynecological cancer and their relatives in psychosocial cancer rehabilitation

Conference Theme: Integrating Psycho-Oncology into Mainstream Cancer Care; From Research to Action