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Aim: The aim of this study was to explore first-line nurse managers' perceptions of the challenges involved in decision-making concerning older patients who wish to die., Design: A descriptive qualitative design in three communities in Norway between January 2016 and June 2016., Methods: Qualitative focus group interviews with eight first-line nurse managers., Results: One main theme and two themes were identified: Struggling to make the right decision, The challenge of social isolation and loneliness and When life becomes too painful and problematic. The sub-themes revealed that: Arranging social meeting places where the older patients can talk to other older people is crucial. The participants explained that it was not an easy task to gain an overview of the older patients situation. The right decision could be encouraging the patients to talk about their problems by giving them more time, thereby showing that somebody cares about them.

Background: In-depth knowledge regarding interdisciplinary collaboration, a key feature in reablement, is scarce., Objective: To elucidate how the interdisciplinary collaboration in reablement worked in a Norwegian context., Sample and Methods: Seven focus group interviews were conducted with 33 health care providers working in interdisciplinary reablement teams in seven municipalities across the country. The focus group interviews were transcribed and an hermeneutical analysis was conducted., Results: The analysis resulted in four main themes: "participant's own goals as a common interdisciplinary platform", "a positive professional community", "learning from each other's skills and competencies" and "new roles and joint efforts but specific competencies". The results show that interdisciplinary collaboration in reablement depends on participants defining their own rehabilitation goals, which function as a professional unifying platform for the interdisciplinary collaboration. The challenges for participants in reablement are often complex and include assessments, effort and a need for close collaboration between several different professionals. A tight interdisciplinary collaboration causes major changes in roles, often from a particular role to a more general role with broader job tasks. Although different professionals perform the same rehabilitation tasks, it is important that each professional contributes their unique competence and thus together they complete each other's competencies., Conclusion: Factors that have a positive impact on interdisciplinary collaboration in reablement are participants' definitions of their goals, number and variety of professionals involved, how closely these professionals collaborate, the amount of time for communication and shared planning and decision making., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

The purpose of this study was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how the elderly cope with being sick, unhealthy and living alone. Qualitative research interviews using a hermeneutic approach was undertaken to explore how the patients experienced coping with their daily life. Twenty patients with an average age of 82 years having different injuries and diseases were interviewed. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed in a hermeneutical tradition of the hermeneutic circle: part-whole, pre-understanding-understanding, and primary, secondary and basic themes. Findings showed that even if physical constraints put limits on their level of activity, the elderly were able to adapt and carry out different activities that did not require any physical strength. The main coping strategy was to accept the situation, but the acceptance was often coloured by a resigned and passive acceptance. If the elderly tend to be passive and resigned, it can be necessary for the community nurses to have a more active problem-solving approach to these patients, in order to help them creating a daily rhythm with which they can feel comfortable.