Nursing Assignment: Hospice Care and Family Experiences Analysis

This nursing assignment addresses the impact of hospice care on family members, framed within the context of a home healthcare nurse's experience. The assignment begins with the formulation of a PICO question, dissecting the clinical question of how hospice care affects family members compared to those without a patient in hospice. A table format is used to clearly outline the Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome components of the PICO question. The assignment then identifies two databases for literature searches, specifically Medline and PubMed, and details a search strategy using keywords and Boolean operators to retrieve relevant scientific articles published between 2015 and 2019, primarily from peer-reviewed journals based in the United Kingdom. The methodology emphasizes the importance of recent literature, peer review, and cultural context in understanding the family experience, providing a detailed account of the search process to answer the clinical question effectively. The assignment includes tables to organize and present the information clearly.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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PICO is used to structure and formulate clinical questions related to nursing. This
PICO indicates the specific question regarding the situation i.e.
Clinical Question: How hospice care can affect the family members of a patient
compared to the family members who are not dealing with a patient?
Patient/Problem Intervention Comparison Outcome
In this case the
problem is related to
the family members
or caregivers who is
connected with a
patient at his/her last
stage of physical
condition.
Patients who have
reached their last
stage of the health
condition, mostly are
provided with
hospice care.
Family members
who are not involved
in providing care to
a patient.
Experience and
thoughts of the
family members or
caregivers in this
situation.
The answer of this specific clinical question can be addressed by using different
scientific literatures which are published in different Journals. There are several online data
bases such as Medline, Scopus etc. which helps to get an accesses to those literature. The
following table consists of the information related to the data base and searching strategies.
Table 1

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Database Searching Strategies
Medline
PubMed is a
search engine
which helps in
accessing
literatures on
biomedical
science. The
database is
maintained by
National
institute of
health.
Keyword
Used
Time frame Type of
Journals
Country of Origin
Keywords
refers to
topics which
can
specifically
define the
whole
concept. In
these case
several
keywords are
used such as
end of life
care, hospice
care,
palliative
care, hospice
care and
family
members,
patients and
family
The article
need to be
from a
recent time.
Therefore,
the time
selected
time frame
was 2015-
2019.
Mostly
peer
reviewed
journals
are used.
On the
other
hand
both
review
and
research
articles
are used.
The scientific articles
are selected on the basis
of their origin. Most of
the articles which are
used for this search are
focusing on United
Kingdom

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members,
patients and
care givers,
end of life
care
strategies,
nursing and
hospice care,
impact of
palliative
care, impact
of hospice
care.
Research strategy refers to a plan which is developed on the basis of the specific
information required for the study. A searching strategy can help to produce quality research
with in a short period of time. Apart from that, it also helps to develop the structure of the
study. Therefore, the specificity of a study is depended on the search strategy.
In this case, several literatures are retrieved by using Medline database. PubMed is the
search engine which helps to access Medline database. The database contains journals from
biomedical background. The different areas of biomedical sciences which are covered in this
database are life sciences, clinical care, public health, health policy development etc. Hence,
it is useful to search topics related to nursing and healthcare. The database is maintained by
Table 2

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National institute of health. This organization involves in managing information in the
database.
Keywords play a vital role in developing searching strategies. Keywords refers to the
specific words by which the whole concept of the topic can be addressed. It plays a major
role in searching different aspects of the topic. This clinical question is divided in different
aspects and to address all of those aspects the following key words are used: Hospice care,
end of life care, palliative care, hospice care and family members, patients and family
members, patients and care givers, end of life care strategies, nursing and hospice care,
impact of palliative care, impact of hospice care, nursing policies, nursing policies and
hospice care, importance of end of life care, principles of end of life care. In case of
keywords, Boolean operators are used for specific search result. The Boolean Operators
include AND, OR, NOT. In this case mostly and is used in the keywords, which helps to
retrieve specific information regarding the clinical question.
One important aspect of biomedical science is that it is continuously changing. Hence,
the facts which were relevant ten years ago, might lose its validity today. Therefore, it is
always important to use literatures which are recently published. In this case, the searching
strategies includes literatures published during the year 2015-2019. Papers which are
published before 2014 are not considered for information in this case.
Validation of the literature is important which enhances the quality of the work. To
maintain the quality of the work, only the peer reviewed journals are used to retrieve
information regarding this questions. Peer reviewed journals ensured the quality of the article
verifying the article from other researchers who are also working with similar kind of work.
Therefore, literatures from peer reviewed journals can provide correct information which can

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help me to find the answer of the questions. Most of the in Medline database are selected by
literature selection review committee to ensure the quality of the study.
The result of a study can differ on the basis of the origin of the work due to several
different factors such as environmental factors, cultural factors, social factors etc. In this case,
cultural and social factors play a key role to understand the thoughts of a family member.
United Kingdom is a country with heterogenic population and as a nurse, it is very common
to encounter a patient who is from different cultural background. Due to this factor, this
searching strategy includes the articles in which the study was conducted in United Kingdom.
As a result, different perspectives of United Kingdom can be understood. Apart from that, the
nursing polices, standards, ethics are different in different countries. Articles from United
Kingdom generally compares the strategies of different nursing intervention with the study
plan. Therefore, it helps to understand the how the strategies can involve to improve the
situation.
Apart from these, the literature are searched on the basis of the language preferences.
In this case, only the literatures which are written in English are searched to answer the
question. 93% of the published articles in Medline are written in English. Therefore, the
database helps to search the articles on the basis of the language preference.