This oral interpretation thesis studies the use of oral interpretation in social contexts. The context chosen was the Hospice movement, which deals with assisting terminally ill persons and their families through the stages of death and bereavement. A readers theatre script was compiled for "Ann's Haven: Hospice of Denton County," which was selected for the locus of this thesis. The script was presented to various civic groups for the purpose of informing the public and eliciting support for Ann's Haven. It was found that oral interpretation is a viable rhetorical tool and is well liked by audiences as a means of public enlightenment.

Music therapy plays an integral role in end-of-life care, positively impacting emotional, social, physical, cognitive and spiritual health. The purpose of this integrative review was to collect and compile studies (N= 55) between 2000 and 2016 on the topic of music therapy interventions in end-of-life care, in order to provide both music therapy students and therapists access to the most recent and commonly used music therapy interventions and goals. Results of the integrative literature review indicate that the most common intervention for all age groups in end-of-life care is songwriting and composition, with the most common therapeutic goal being emotional expression and catharsis. Details of music therapy interventions, goals and song details are written in tables for readers to refer to as a guide. Further research is needed with each specific age group and setting, in order to provide refined results beyond what is revealed through this review. Additionally, evaluating therapeutic outcomes of the interventions and goals obtained through this integrative review is another step that can be taken for future research.

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This research explored the social and psychological needs of caregivers of advanced cancer patients, and their subsequent bereavement adjustment. The study focuses exclusively on informal caregivers who provide assistance to patients receiving hospice care for end-stage cancer. Those individuals living furthest from the dying care recipient, the long distance caregivers, were of particular interest. This study used a prospective design to explore how a caregiver's geographic proximity impacted their social support and bereavement adjustment. A 2 x 3 repeated measures design was used to gather data from caregivers before a patient's death (using a pre-death questionnaire) as well as after the death (by post-death questionnaire). This design allowed for an examination of differences between three groups of caregivers over time: long distance caregivers (who live an hour or more from the care recipient), proximate caregivers (who live less than an hour away) and co-residing caregivers. One hundred and six (N = 106) caregivers were recruited to participate from Covenant Hospice, a large Gulf Coast-based palliative care organization. Validated instruments were used to measure levels of social support and bereavement adjustment. A repeated measures MANCOVA procedure explored the impact of geographic proximity on measures of social support and adjustment. Results did not support the proposed multivariate model. However, quality of dying (as measured by the QOD-Hospice) was identified as an influential between-groups covariate within the model. Further exploration of the QOD-Hospice revealed a negative correlation with levels of emotional grief, and positive correlations with length of stay in hospice, and pre-loss and post-loss levels of social support. Overall results seem to suggest that timely referrals to hospice, improvements in care for the dying, and increased attention to quality of dying, may have a beneficial impact for survivors during bereavement. Furthermore, findings from this study suggest that the quality of a person's final days may play an important role in how the surviving caregivers adjust to the loss. Not only can high quality end-of-life care benefit dying patients, but it may also facilitate bereavement adjustment for those who participated in their care network. However, findings were limited and further investigation of these relationships is warranted.

DIMENSIONS OF PAIN OF A DYING PERSON IN CONTEXT OF LIFE AND WORK OF CICELY SAUNDERS Pavel Beránek, Special Education, Department of Special Education, Faculty of Special Education, 2010 The thesis aims at Cicely Saunders (1918-2005), the founder of the modern hospic movement, at her influence on the movement and at the ideas she introduced. The personality of the dying person, listening to him/her and perception of his/her needs are described as key-stones of her thinking. The needs are seen through the concept of total pain - physical, psychical, social and spiritual. Special attention is given to influence of Viktor Frankl. Key words: Cicely Saunders, hospice, total pain, dying

The main topic of this dissertation is Volunteers in hospice care in the Czech Republic. The aim was find the role of volunteers in hospices and benefit of their work for clients of these institutions. The work is divided into six chapters. Theoretical part consists of five chapters focused on death and dying and of ethical issues of the end of life. The research and its results are described in sixth chapter. The overall goal of this dissertation is to talk about end of life dying and death because it is a taboo in our society.

Vývoj hospicové paliativní péče se zaměřením na Německo a Českou Republiku Development of hospice-palliative care with focus on Germany and the Czech Republic Ruth Kubíčková The aim of the thesis was to map the development, crucial moments and current .shape of hospice-palliative care and simultaneously confirm the thesis that the care of spiritual feature of dying persons has been an integral part of organized development of hospice care since its beginning and nowadays, it is still one of its principal themes. The first chapter deals with branch terminology since its clear definition is essential, not only for dialogue inside the system of palliative care providers and experts, but for interdisciplinary communication and cooperation which is - according to the definition of palliative care - the foundation of its holistic approach to patients. The second and third chapters are concerned with the development of nursing care since the ancient times to the diversification of modern hospice-palliative care at the end of the twentieth century. They deduce that the Christianity, with its central commandment to love thy neighbour as thyself, has changed the attitude to care of suffering persons, both in the nursing care and in shapes and ways of providing care. In the response to revolutionary changes in...

The diploma thesis is focused on the society's view of the problems of legalization of euthanasia. The thesis is divided into two main parts, the theoretical and the empirical one. The theoretical part consists of the basic terms related to the given problems, further of historical development of euthanasia, countries where euthanasia is legalized, arguments of proponents and opponents of euthanasia and paliative care. The practical part follows after theoretical information and deals with analysis of data gained by a questionnaire research and interpretation of individual findings relating to respondents' general awareness of euthanasia and differences in the view of euthanasia between lay public and professionals. At the end of the thesis, the concrete recommendations in future discussions about euthanasia are proposed on the basis of gained information.

Thesis advisor: Julie Mortimer / Essays on the effects of health policy payment systems in long-term care and end-of-life care institutions are studied. In the arena of long-term care, state Medicaid agencies have recently implemented pay-for-performance (P4P) programs to address poor quality of care in nursing homes. Using facility-quarter level data from 2003 to 2010, we evaluate the effects of Medicaid nursing home P4P programs on clinical quality measures, relying on variation in the timing of P4P implementation across states. Further, we exploit variation in the structure of states' programs to investigate whether programs that reward certain dimensions of quality are associated with larger improvements. We find P4P decreases the incidence of adverse clinical outcomes by as much as 8%, and the improvements are concentrated among the measures that experienced an increase in their relative returns and share strong commonalities in production. In the Hospice industry, changes to the current reimbursement system are mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The motivation stems from noticeable hospice utilization changes since the Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) introduced a per-diem reimbursement in 1983. This research analyzes the abilities of a multi-tiered payment system, and a simpler two-part pricing system, to accurately match Medicare payments with hospice patient costs. Both systems improve on the current payment mechanism, while two-part pricing is the only system to maintain access to care for all MHB eligible patients. In addition, consumer disutility incurred by driving to airports is estimated and used to define air travel markets. Though an accurate definition of an economic market is important for any study of industry, there is no rule governing what exactly constitutes a market. To define a market we must ask the question ``between which products do consumers substitute,'' knowing that the answer to this question will depend on how ``close'' products are to one another in product space, as well as how close they are to one another, and to consumers, in geographic space. We estimate a discrete choice model of air travel demand that uses known information about the locations of products and consumers, which allows us to study substitution patterns among air travel products at different airports. We evaluate the commonly used city-pair and airport-pair definitions of a market for air travel, and conclude that a city-pair is the appropriate definition. We also employ the Hypothetical Monopolist test for antitrust market definition, as defined by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, and conclude that the relevant geographic market for antitrust analysis is frequently more narrowly defined as an airport-pair. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

The growing older adult population, their age-related morbidities, and lifelimiting chronic illnesses increase the demand for quality yet cost-effective end of life (EOL) care. Losing a loved one creates emotional turmoil, heightened uneasiness, and EOL uncertainties for family members. Understanding the complex needs of family members and supportive actions deemed most significant to them can guide nurses to enhance EOL care, encouraging palliation and peaceful death experiences. This study used a qualitative descriptive exploratory design guided by story theory methodology to explore the dimensions of the health challenge of losing a loved one who had been in an acute care setting during the last three months of life, the approaches used to resolve this health challenge, and turning points that prompted decisions about a loved one’s care with 15 older adults residing in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in Southeast Florida. Theoretical grounding for this study was Watson’s (1988, 2002) theory of human caring and Smith and Liehr’s (2014) story theory. Older adults’ stories were analyzed through theory-guided content analysis. Themes that describe the health challenge include moving from painful holding on to poignant letting go, uneasiness that permeates everyday living and precious memories, patterns of disconnect that breed discontent, and pervasive ambiguity that permeates perspectives about remaining time. Approaches to resolve this challenge include active engagement enabling exceptional care for loved ones, appreciating the rhythmic flow of everyday connecting and separating to get by, and embracing reality as situated in one’s lifelong journey. Failure to establish normalcy, coming to grips with abrupt health decline/demise, and recognition – there’s nothing more to do – were the turning points identified by CCRC residents. Older adults’ vivid recollections of losing a loved one and willingness to share EOL concerns as well as recommendations regarding support of family members who are facing this challenge serve as invaluable guidance for improving EOL care for dying patients and their family members. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection