Abstract not available. / Until now, historians have devoted relatively little attention to the rich field of patients' struggles with chronic progressive disease. This study proposes to begin to fill this lacuna by examining in detail the meaning and implications of one central principle of nineteenth-century clinical medicine: incurability. Though the judgement of incurability is the product of a medical encounter, its significance extended well beyond the clinic. For being incurable in nineteenth-century France was a social event in the broadest sense, putting the individual at the centre of a complex web of people with different expectations and duties. Patients and their farnilies sought relief and solace within the confines of their homes and, frequently enough, in hospital. The physician was expected to prognosticate and to heal, while women, usually members of the immediate family or a religious order, carried out the duties of daily care. Either by choice or institutional diktat, many incurably ill individuals were visited by a priest or some other representative of the Church. Finally, their lives were deeply influenced by the decisions of local and, to an ever increasing degree, national politicians mandated to tackle questions of charity and social policy. Each chapter of this thesis will examine facets of the experience of incurability within the context of existing social structures: medical, religious, economic, and political.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2008. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 134 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1992.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Freiburg/Schweiz, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Larry Browning and Rajiv Rimal. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2007. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 40 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Bakgrund: En av grunderna för den palliativa vården är patienten, att patienten trots sin svåra situation får uppleva en god livskvalitet. Känsla av kontroll är även det en grund för den palliativa vården, vilket kan påverkas av personcentrerad vård. Vid en väl uppfylld personcentrerad vård kan en känsla av kontroll infinna sig hos patienten, vilket är en stor betydande del i den annars något svårt greppbara situationen. Syfte: Syftet är att sammanställa tidigare forskning om upplevelser hos patienter som erhåller palliativ vård i sitt eget hem. Metod: Detta är en litteraturöversikt som är baserad på 15 olika artiklar. Datainsamlingen har skett via sökningar i databaserna PubMed och CINAHL och är systematiskt analyserade innan de är sammanställda i resultatet. Resultat: Majoriteten av patienterna upplevde den palliativa vården i hemmet som positiv, vårdpersonalen ansågs vara trevliga, pålästa och engagerade. Patienterna poängterade även att för att behålla en god livskvalitet var en grundläggande del att patientens personlighet fick bevaras, att patienten ses som en person och inte som sin sjukdom. Det var också viktigt för patienterna att de fick känna sig självständiga och behövda. Konklusion: Patienterna upplevde att de blev väl omhändertagna samt att deras önskan sattes i fokus. För att detta skall uppnås var det viktigt att sjuksköterskan uppmuntrade och lyfte patientens åsikter, behov och vilja. / Background: One of the fundamentals of palliative care is the patient, to give the patient a decent quality of life despite their difficult situation. A sense of control is another essential part of palliative care, this can be obtained by person centered care. By well performed person centered care the patient may feel like they are in control, which is important in a situation that otherwise can be hard to handle. Aim: The aim of this study was to state previous research on how patients experiences palliative care in their own home. Methods: This is a literature review based on 15 articles. The articles who were found in the databases PubMed and CINAHL is systematically analyzed before they were compiled in the result. Results: The majority of patients experiences the palliative care in their own home as positive, they thought that the staff was kind, well prepared and committed. The patient also pointed that the essential part to maintain a good quality of life was to retaining the patients personality, and that the patient are being seen as a person and not as their disease. Other important things for the patients was to feel independent and to have a feeling of being needed. Conclusions: The patients felt that they were taken care of in a good way and that their wishes about their care was prioritized. For this to be achieved, the nurse encourages the patient's opinions, needs and will.

The impression existed that nurses were not always compassionate and caring when they had to nurse terminally ill patients and the question arose whether they were adequately trained for this task. This study focused on the most frequent diseases that cause the death of patients in a province of Angola, and set out to determine what preparation nurses in a specific hospital received to equip them to care for terminally ill patients. A quantitative approach was adopted, using an exploratory and descriptive design, and a self-developed questionnaire was applied as data-collection instrument for a sample of 100 medium- and basic level nurses in a specific hospital in a province of Angola. From the results of the study it was evident that the nurse respondents were well informed as to what it entailed to be terminally ill, which factors affected the patient's comfort, safety and self image needs but only half of the respondents indicated that they received training pertaining to palliative care. Recommendations were made in view of better preparing nurses to care for the terminally ill patient. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)