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Quality of Life, Well-Being and Nurse-Patient Interaction in Late Life

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2022) | Viewed by 8952

Special Issue Editors

Department of Public Health and Nursing, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, Nord University, Levanger
Interests: quality-of-life and wellbeing in late life; nurse-patient interaction; health promotion; palliative care; spiritual/existential care; meaning-in-life; self-transcendence; hope; sense of coherence; mental health
Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, Nord University, 7800 Namsos, Norway
Interests: quality-of-life and wellbeing in late life; nurse-patient interaction; compassion; ethics in nursing; palliative care and patient safety; municipal healthcare services.
Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Western University of Applied Sciences, 5063 Bergen, Norway; University of Bergen, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, 5063 Bergen, Norway
Interests: quality-of-life and wellbeing in late life; loneliness; nurse-patient interaction; sense of coherence; mental health; social support

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world is currently facing a shift to an older population—125 million people are now aged 80 years or older. Today, for the first time in history, most people can expect to live into their sixties and beyond. All countries in the world face major challenges to ensure that their health and social systems are ready to make the most of this demographic shift. As people live longer, it is important to ensure that the extra years of life are worth living, despite chronic illnesses. Hence, in the years to come, health-promotive initiatives supporting quality-of-life (QoL) and wellbeing in late life will become ever more important. In this context, late life is understood as older individuals and palliative or terminal patients.

In late life, people experience changes in roles, relationships and living environments that can increase their risk for experiencing social isolation and loneliness—particularly when moving to a care facility. With advancing age, loss of functionality and symptom severity, it is inevitable that people lose connection with their friendship networks and that they find it more difficult to initiate new friendships and to belong to new networks. However, a link between QoL and connectedness is emerging in the literature. Despite old age, chronic diseases, fatigue or frailty, the desire for affiliation and social bonding is an intrinsic human need, also in late life.
Existential issues represent fundamental issues of human life, such as what makes life worth living and how to cope with the finality of life. Difficulties in finding answers to these questions can result in existential suffering and distress. Research has shown that meaning-in-life is significant not only for emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing, but for physical wellbeing as well. The few studies available show the need to talk about existential issues or what is actually on one’s mind. However, these issues have so far received little attention in gerontological and elderly care literature.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the current state of knowledge on the links between QoL, wellbeing and nurse–patient interaction in late life. New research papers, reviews, case reports and conference papers are welcome to this Issue. Papers dealing with new approaches to enhance wellbeing and QoL in late life are very welcome.

We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines, including nursing and midwifery, health sciences, psychology, and chaplain/pastoral care, in the form of cross-sectional and intervention studies, literature reviews/meta-analyses and psychometric studies. Here are some examples of topics that could be addressed in this Special Issue, related to the overarching topic of QoL, wellbeing and nurse–patient interaction in late life:

- Loneliness in late life
- Meaning-in-life
- Existential issues in late life
- Dignity in late life
- Spiritual care in late life
- Pastoral care in late life
- Health promotion initiatives in late life
- Municipality care; nursing home residents and/or older home-dwelling individuals
- Experience of social support and wellbeing in late life
- Social support in late life
- Coping in late life
- Transitions in late life
- Caregivers’ experiences of nurse-patient interaction in elderly and/or palliative care
- Quality of care in late life

Prof. Dr. Gorill Haugan
Dr. Siri Andreassen Devik
Prof. Dr. Jorunn Drageset
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • old age
  • nursing care
  • palliative care
  • nurse–patient interaction
  • wellbeing
  • quality-of-life

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 390 KiB  
Article
Providing End-of-Life Care to COVID-19 Patients: The Lived Experiences of ICU Nurses in the Philippines
by O-Jay B. Jimenez, Sheilla M. Trajera and Gregory S. Ching
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12953; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph191912953 - 10 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4455
Abstract
In the midst of COVID-19, radical change in the work environment further exacerbated the detrimental effects of critical illness in the intensive care unit (ICU). This may be heightened if the patient experiences a lamentable end-of-life experience due to inadequate end-of-life care (EoLC). [...] Read more.
In the midst of COVID-19, radical change in the work environment further exacerbated the detrimental effects of critical illness in the intensive care unit (ICU). This may be heightened if the patient experiences a lamentable end-of-life experience due to inadequate end-of-life care (EoLC). Anchoring on the theory of bureaucratic caring and the peaceful end-of-life theory, insights can be gained into the motivations and behaviors that support the delivery of palliative care during COVID-19. With this having been having said, the objective of this study was to use a narrative approach to examine the lived experience of 12 nurses who provided EoLC in the COVID-19 ward of several hospitals in the Western Philippines. Participants’ narratives were transcribed, translated and analyzed. Among the themes that have emerged are: establishing a peaceful journey to death, holistic caring for the end of life, venturing into risky encounters in the call of duty, staying close amidst the reshaped work environment, and preparing the family life after a loved one’s departure. The study identified the importance of assisting patients on their journey to a peaceful death, but this journey was also accompanied by a sense of self-preservation and safety for colleagues and families. Full article
18 pages, 966 KiB  
Article
Religious Coping Styles and Depressive Symptoms in Geriatric Patients: Understanding the Relationship through Experiences of Integrity and Despair
by Lindsy Desmet, Jessie Dezutter, Anne Vandenhoeck and Annemie Dillen
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(7), 3835; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19073835 - 23 Mar 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2319
Abstract
Older persons are often confronted with challenging events in their lives. Religion can offer them a way to deal with these challenges. The study of religious coping styles helps us to understand how people find support in their religion or wrestle with aspects [...] Read more.
Older persons are often confronted with challenging events in their lives. Religion can offer them a way to deal with these challenges. The study of religious coping styles helps us to understand how people find support in their religion or wrestle with aspects of their religion when they are confronted with difficulties. Especially when older adults face illness and hospitalization, religious coping styles might be triggered. Despite the fact that the public role of religion, especially Christianity, is diminishing in West European societies, a large group of Belgian geriatric patients call themselves religious. Previous studies have shown that there is a link between positive/negative religious coping styles and the depressive symptoms that often occur in older adults. More recently, some scholars have emphasized that this relationship is more complex. Therefore, this paper investigates the role of one possible underlying mechanism between positive/negative religious coping styles and depressive symptoms in geriatric patients, namely the developmental process of integrity and despair as two factors within this mechanism. One hundred thirty-nine geriatric inpatients from three hospitals in Belgium who reported to feel religiously affiliated were involved in this study. Our results indicate that experiences of integrity and despair function as an explanatory pathway in the relationship between negative religious coping styles and depressive symptoms. Further, a direct link was found between both when accounting for experiences of integrity and despair. For positive religious coping styles, no direct or indirect relationship with depressive symptoms was found. In healthcare, geriatric caregivers need to be aware of the interaction between positive and negative religious coping styles, the developmental process of integrity and despair, and depressive symptoms. Full article
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11 pages, 586 KiB  
Article
Assessment of the Psychophysical Sphere and Functional Status of Women Aged 75–90 Living Alone and in Nursing Homes
by Justyna Traczyk, Agnieszka Dębiec-Bąk, Anna Skrzek and Małgorzata Stefańska
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(17), 9028; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18179028 - 27 Aug 2021
Viewed by 1520
Abstract
Aim: To assess the psychophysical sphere and functional status of women aged 75–90 living alone and in nursing homes. Methods: 23 women living in nursing homes (NH) and 20 living alone (HOME) underwent the following tests: Up and Go Test, Chair Stand Test, [...] Read more.
Aim: To assess the psychophysical sphere and functional status of women aged 75–90 living alone and in nursing homes. Methods: 23 women living in nursing homes (NH) and 20 living alone (HOME) underwent the following tests: Up and Go Test, Chair Stand Test, assessment of daily physical activity levels using pedometers, Mini-Mental State Examination, Groningen Activity Restriction Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale, and WHOQOL-Bref. Results: It was shown that the subjects living by themselves performed a greater amount of daily physical activity, although there was not significant difference between the two groups in the Up and Go Test result. There were not statistically significant differences in the self-assessment of the mental sphere, but significant differences were found in the self-evaluation of the physical sphere. In the NH group, subjects with and without depression did not differ in terms of the amount of daily physical activity and functional test results. Women with depression from the HOME group were less physically active and had worse functional fitness. Conclusions: Women living alone performed a greater amount of daily physical activity, but the functional status of women in both groups did not differ in a statistically significant way. The groups didn’t differ statistically significantly in terms of psychological self-assessment. Full article
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