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Objectives: In palliative care, it is important for family caregivers to spend time with and care for the patient, and to receive (in)formal support. These elements were compromised during the Covid-19-pandemic. This study investigates what family caregivers of non-Covid-19-patients in the palliative phase shared online during the first wave of the pandemic, and what their communicative intentions were with posting online. Methods: To investigate what family caregivers shared online, a reflexive thematic analysis was performed on online newspaper articles and posts on Twitter, Facebook and online forums. To investigate family caregivers' communicative intentions with social media posts, content analysis was conducted guided by Speech Act Theory. Results: In total, 412 posts and articles were included, the majority being Tweets (86.7%). Four themes were constructed: 1) 'Being out of touch', 2) 'Fear, worries and uncertainties, 3) 'Disbelief, anger and resistance', and 4) 'Understanding, acceptance and gratitude'. Family caregivers felt overwhelmed with anger, sadness and anxiety, yet some expressing milder or positive attitudes towards the new circumstances. Family caregivers mostly posted online to share their personal experiences and emotions, and to express their opinions about the restrictions. Conclusions: The pandemic had distinct implications for family caregivers of non-Covid-19-patients in the palliative phase. In future similar circumstances, restrictions should be tailored to individual conditions and interventions should be in place to facilitate contact between patients, family caregivers and healthcare professionals and to support family caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial discusses the complex and emotionally charged topic of Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), highlighting perspectives from different countries with varying legislation. The article emphasizes the need for robust support systems and clear communication between patients, families, and healthcare professionals. It also addresses the importance of integrating MAID with palliative care, understanding family dynamics, and providing comprehensive aftercare for bereaved relatives and healthcare workers. The authors stress the necessity of a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to support individuals seeking MAID, their loved ones, and healthcare providers, calling for further research to expand understanding and identify areas for improvement in end-of-life care practices globally. [Extracted from the article]

To describe the lived experience of older people who see no future for oneself in the context of aging and the possible development of a wish to die. Data were collected from 34 interviews with people of 55-92 years. A phenomenological hermeneutical analysis was performed using crafted stories as an analytical device. Four intertwined constituents together with the essence of the phenomenon provide a layered description of what it means to see no future for oneself. In all constituents: 1) not sharing everyday life, 2) looking for new commitments, 3) facing present losses and future fears and 4) imagining not waking up in the morning, the essence losing zest for life seeped through their daily experiences. As their horizon of future possibilities is shrinking, older people in our study experience a loss of zest for life and start to questioning the value of their present lives. And although a certain languishing mood can be discovered, the phenomenon 'seeing no future for oneself' does not entail a wish to die. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although support for family caregivers is an essential component of palliative care, routine provision of such support is often lacking. To improve support for family caregivers, we assessed current practice and influencing factors as perceived by healthcare professionals. Methods: A two-phase study was conducted including a survey exploring healthcare professionals' practice of supporting family caregivers in Western urbanized Netherlands in 2017, and focus groups exploring facilitators and barriers to supporting family caregivers in 2018. Focus group data were thematically analyzed with deductive coding based on the COM-B system. Results: Of the 379 survey respondents (response 11%), 374 were eligible (physicians, 28%; nurses, 64%; nurse assistants, 9%). The respondents practiced in academic hospitals (52%), general hospitals (31%), nursing homes (11%) and hospices (5%). They reported to always (38%), most of the time (37%), sometimes (21%) or never (5%) provide support to family caregivers during the illness trajectory. Respondents reported to always (28%), sometimes (39%), or never (33%) provide support after death. Four focus group discussions with 22 healthcare professionals elicited motivational facilitators and barriers to supporting family caregivers (e.g., relationship with family caregivers, deriving satisfaction from supporting them), and factors related to capability (e.g., (lacking) conversational skills, knowledge) and opportunity (e.g., (un)availability of protocols and time). Conclusions: Support for family caregivers, especially after the patient's death, is not systematically integrated in working procedures of healthcare professionals. The barriers and facilitators identified in this study can inform the development of an intervention aiming to enhance support for family caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Gender differences in quality of life in coronary artery disease patients with comorbidities undergoing coronary revascularization." The correction states that there was an error in Table 2, where the columns for the parameters beta (β) and standard errors (SE) should have been chi-square statistics "χ2" and "df" respectively. The corrected table is provided in the document. The article was authored by Tom H. Oreel, Pythia T. Nieuwkerk, Iris D. Hartog, Justine E. Netjes, Alexander B. A. Vonk, Jorrit Lemkes, Hanneke W. M. van Laarhoven, Michael Scherer-Rath, Mirjam A. G. Sprangers, and José P. S. Henriques. [Extracted from the article]