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The goal of the study was to explore the lived experiences and parental perceptions of families with children who are immunosuppressed following paediatric solid organ translation. The research questions sought to generate new knowledge and understanding of the following: how families manage acute and chronic stress; how families manage the accumulation of stress; how their functioning is impacted by the immunosuppression and the related recommendations; what are the challenges that they face as immunosuppressed families; and what are the strengths of the children and their families? Study participants were families living across two provinces in Canada (Manitoba and Saskatchewan), who have a child who is immunosuppressed long-term following a paediatric solid organ transplant. The research design was qualitative autoethnography as well as interpretative phenomenological analysis, which utilized the family stress theory and the double ABC-X model within the analysis. The study focused on providing insight and developing a theoretical lens into how different facets of immunosuppression may impact families in all areas of functioning post-transplant, including those identified within the social determinants of health. The findings suggested families experienced stress and financial implications as individual concerns, and vaccine hesitancy and the current state of the organ registry as systemic concerns. Study participants indicated a need for more accessible supports for families, such as family counselling. A preliminary framework was created based on the findings of the study, in order to guide clinicians during the initial assessment of families entering into the transplant procedures to determine their inventory of current resources, their ability to access additional resources, and whether or not the family may be vulnerable to crisis and mal-adaptation, as a means to provide more holistic care to families.

Notoriously known as the ‘silent epidemic’, Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) has reached worldwide epidemic proportions. While ABIs are manifested in individuals, families’ lives are dramatically affected by ABIs. These post ABI changes can directly impact individuals’ and families’ experiences and include a sense of loss. To date, the majority of evidence on how ABI affects families has been provided by examining individual family members who present their views of the “family perspective”. The science on ABI and families is limited in examining the family group perspective of their experiences living with ABI. The purpose of this research study was to examine families’ experiences living with ABI. This narrative inquiry study, informed by the life-stage approach of Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach and Zilber, and the narrative analysis model by Riessman, and guided by ambiguous loss theory, used a research approach that included both the affected individual family member and the family together as a family group. Transactional data were collected through individual family group face-to face interviews with six different families. Data were also collected through ethnographic methods. Data analysis included an in-depth within case analysis and an across case analysis to identify themes that reflected families’ experiences living with ABI. Centered on the life stages of before the ABI event, now living with the ABI, and the future, thematic findings included: Families, a grounding force; Losses, individual and family; Family adaptive capacities; Experiences with the health care system-hospital to home; and A patchwork future-entering the unknown. The thematic findings from this study affirmed the significant impacts of ABI on individual and family members and acknowledged ABI as an ambiguous loss event. However, the findings also illuminated families’ strengths and resiliencies in coping with living with ABI. The study findings suggest minimal supports exist for families impacte

Notoriously known as the ‘silent epidemic’, Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) has reached worldwide epidemic proportions. While ABIs are manifested in individuals, families’ lives are dramatically affected by ABIs. These post ABI changes can directly impact individuals’ and families’ experiences and include a sense of loss. To date, the majority of evidence on how ABI affects families has been provided by examining individual family members who present their views of the “family perspective”. The science on ABI and families is limited in examining the family group perspective of their experiences living with ABI. The purpose of this research study was to examine families’ experiences living with ABI. This narrative inquiry study, informed by the life-stage approach of Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach and Zilber, and the narrative analysis model by Riessman, and guided by ambiguous loss theory, used a research approach that included both the affected individual family member and the family together as a family group. Transactional data were collected through individual family group face-to face interviews with six different families. Data were also collected through ethnographic methods. Data analysis included an in-depth within case analysis and an across case analysis to identify themes that reflected families’ experiences living with ABI. Centered on the life stages of before the ABI event, now living with the ABI, and the future, thematic findings included: Families, a grounding force; Losses, individual and family; Family adaptive capacities; Experiences with the health care system-hospital to home; and A patchwork future-entering the unknown. The thematic findings from this study affirmed the significant impacts of ABI on individual and family members and acknowledged ABI as an ambiguous loss event. However, the findings also illuminated families’ strengths and resiliencies in coping with living with ABI. The study findings suggest minimal supports exist for families impacte

Critical qualitative methodology provides a strategy to examine the human experience and its relationship to power and truth. Cultural safety is a concept that has been applied to nursing education and practice and refers to interactions that acknowledge and respect the unique cultural background of patients. It recognizes power inequities between caregivers who belong to dominant cultures and patients who may belong to oppressed groups. Culture is interpreted from a critical constructivist perspective as a fluid relational process that is enacted contextually. The purpose of this paper is to examine the congruence between and among critical methodology, cultural safety, and the conduct of nursing research in low- and middle-income countries by nurses from high-income countries. It is argued that if cultural safety is important and relevant to education and practice, then it might be appropriate to address it in research endeavors.