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Justification for information and knowledge: Perceptions of family members in palliative home care in Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2004

MARIA J. FRIEDRICHSEN
MARIA J. FRIEDRICHSEN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Welfare and Care, Palliative Care, Linköping University, 601 74 Norrköping, Sweden
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Abstract

Objective: Several studies have concluded that family members in palliative home care want information about the patient's disease. The aim of this study was to describe family members' perceptions of their motivation for receiving information about the patient's disease.

Method: Semistructured tape-recorded interviews were performed with 20 family members of patients with incurable progressive cancer who were admitted to hospital-based home care in Sweden. Data were analyzed using a qualitative phenomenographic method.

Results: Family members justified their informational needs by emphasizing that they needed to understand and confirm what would happen when the disease progressed, to be mentally prepared for the future, to organize their daily life, to be a source of information to others, and that receiving information was a natural right.

Significance of results: This study has revealed some explanations as to why family members want information. In clinical practice, it is important that palliative care team members are aware of family members' level of knowledge and their need for information, as this mental preparation is important.

Keywords

Family membersPalliative home careInformationMotivation
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 239 - 245
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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