Donna Wilson

University of Alberta | UAlberta

Background Innovative teaching methods are needed to ensure end-of-life care is provided by nurses through a person-centered approach. Aims This study was designed to (a) explore the self-identified impact of reading dying patient experiential narrative accounts on undergraduate nursing students; and (b) explore the teaching usefulness of patient...

Background The existing evidence demonstrates that survivors of SJS/TEN have reported long-lasting psychological effects of their condition. Burns patients experience similar psychological effects. It is important to look at ways to help allay the psychological complications of SJS/TEN. As there is an absence of evidence on SJS/TEN psychotherapeuti...

The death of a loved one is extremely impactful. Although much of the focus now on helping people who are experiencing bereavement grief is oriented to distinguishing complicated from non-complicated grief for early pharmaceutical or psychiatric treatment, lay bereavement support comprises a more common and thus highly important but often unrecogni...

In 2020-2021, a qualitative study was undertaken using an interpretive description methodology to identify what triggers grief in the first 2 years following the death of a beloved family member, and to gain other helpful insights about grief triggers from bereaved Canadian adult volunteers. In that study, a purposive sampling method was used to se...

Background Nurses’ political engagement is needed for societal advancements. Purpose The purpose of this study was to explain why and how nurses became politically active, and what they achieved. Methods Qualitative, constant-comparative data analysis was used for this study. After 10 elected or politically-active Canadian nurses were interviewed...

Background Companion animal death is a common source of grief, although the extent and context of that grief is poorly understood, especially in older adulthood. The aim of this multiple-methods study was to develop a greater understanding of the impact of companion animal death on older women living alone in the community, as older women are a dis...

Background/Objective Personal autonomy and control are major concepts for people with life-limiting conditions. Patients who express a wish to die (WTD) are often thought of wanting it because of loss of autonomy or control. The research conducted so far has not focused on personal beliefs and perspectives; and little is known about patients’ under...

A study of the bereavement programs provided by hospices in Ireland and the Canadian province of Alberta was done to determine if and how these are evaluated for efficacy. All but one hospice offered multiple different bereavement programs, with routine in-house evaluations of all programs performed. In all cases, staff and client unsolicited and s...

Our study aimed to examine the symptoms that might play a role in the co-occurrence of 9 DSM-5 symptom criteria of major depression among Brazil's adult population and healthcare professionals after three months of detecting the new coronavirus in Brazil. We estimated regularized Gaussian graphical models for both samples and compared the network s...

Grief is understandably severe in the first days, if not weeks or months, following the death of a beloved person. Unless the mourner develops complicated grief, which is prolonged severe and impactful grief, the initial acute grief lessens in severity over time, although waves of significant grief will still occur with grief triggers. A scoping re...

Although most employees and business owners or operators will likely experience the death of one or more loved ones over their work lives, attention has not focused on how bereavement grief impacts the workplace. A study was conducted for foundational information. Data on the annual incidence of bereavement leaves and related matters were collected...

Aim The aim of this study is to determine the need for and value of nurse and midwife prescribing in Ireland as identified by these prescribers—the people most able to provide relevant insights and information. Background Since 2007, nurses and midwives in Ireland who have passed an additional educational program can prescribe medicinal products r...

Background Palliative care is insufficiently integrated in the continuum of care for older people. It is unclear to what extent healthcare policy for older people includes elements of palliative care and thus supports its integration. Aim (1) To develop a reference framework for identifying palliative care contents in policy documents; (2) to dete...

Most people will experience bereavement grief, but some suffer from persistent or prolonged (PoP) grief, grief that used to be identified as “complicated” before recent DSM-5 and ICD-11 definitional developments. In 2020, a scoping literature review was undertaken to identify and consolidate contemporary evidence from research articles published in...

When someone is terminally ill, it is often a very stressful time for the dying person and their family. It would not be unusual for intra-family conflict, involving one or more family members and even the dying person, to occur. However, this type of conflict has not been identified as an end-of-life issue needing to be noticed and addressed or pr...

Bereavement grief is typically very painful and often highly consequential. People who are working could be significantly impacted by the death of someone they care about. A qualitative study sought an understanding of the lived experience of bereavement on the mourner’s ability to work and their work-related experiences following the death of a lo...

Background There is much current as well as long-standing concern that nurses need to be more involved in and also more adept at politics and political action for the advancement of the profession, and for the health and wellbeing of the public. Objectives An historical scoping literature review was carried out to identify if, as well as why, when...

Background We compared the cost-effectiveness of 10 weeks of outreach rehabilitation (intervention) versus usual care (control) for ambulatory nursing home residents after hip fracture. Methods Enrollment occurred February 2011 through June 2015 in a Canadian metropolitan region. 77 participants were allocated in a 2:1 ratio to receive a 10-week r...

Aim: Accelerating population ageing is raising concern in many countries now in relation to the availability of workers for essential work roles and responsibilities. A scoping research literature review was done to identify factors currently associated with early retirement and contemporary strategies to encourage and support longer working lives...

We verified moral distress related to organ shortage for transplantation in nursing students. This quantitative pilot study analyzed data from 104 nursing undergraduate students. Data were collected through a survey composed of four questions and two sociodemographic items. The chi-squared test was used to examine categorical variables, whereas con...

A Theory analysis on Kolcaba Comfort Theory for Improved Chronic Pain Management among Older Adults

A review of all 44 research reports published between 2000 and 2018 on bereavement program evaluation was undertaken to identify evaluation methods and assess their apparent efficacy. Bereavement program evaluations varied considerably, with multiple data collection methods per study common (61.4%) over single methods (38.6%). Among these evaluatio...

Background Some people experience exceptionally severe bereavement grief, and this level of post-death grief could potentially be the result of a low quality dying process. Aims A pilot study was conducted to determine if a relationship exists between perceived death quality and bereavement grief intensity. Methods A questionnaire was developed a...

Medical assistance in dying (MAID) was implemented across Canada in June of 2016, after each Canadian province and territory had developed their own MAID processes. Over the first 2 years, just under 300 Alberta citizens received MAID services, a very small proportion (<0.5%) of all 52,000 decedents. An online 2017–2018 survey of Alberta healthcare...

There are few studies on interment preferences and practices for people in remote and rural regions of developed countries. This mixed methods study in rural Australia collated data on funeral and interment practices with an ethnographic exploration of the post-death preferences of terminally-ill rural residents. In the region, between February 201...

Background Dying people and older people have often been thought of as high users of hospitals, but current population-based evidence is needed to confirm or refute this claim. Purpose Quantitative population-based study designed to identify and describe hospital patients who are high users. Methods Data for all 2014–2015 Canadian hospital patien...

Background This study compared function three-months after hip fracture surgery between nursing home residents participating in a 10-week outreach rehabilitation program and those receiving usual care. Function, health-related quality of life (HRQL) and mortality were also compared over 12-months and outreach program feasibility was assessed. Meth...

Background: Concern has existed for many years about the extensive use of hospitals by dying persons. In recent years, however, a potential shift out of hospital has been noticed in a number of developed countries, including Canada. In Canada, where high hospital occupancy rates and corresponding long waits and waitlists for hospital care are major...

Healthcare services are one of the twelve determinants of population health. While all types of healthcare services are important, timely access to hospital-based care when needed is critical. For three decades, long waits and wait lists for hospital admission and inpatient care have been a concern in Canada. Undersupply of hospital beds to meet po...

The aim of this 2018 research study was to determine why nurse‐based Injury Units were developed in Ireland and how they function in the Irish healthcare system, including what they contribute in relation to addressing the healthcare needs of Irish citizens. A document review was completed and interviews of nurse practitioners and physicians workin...

Aims: Most people approaching the end of life develop care needs, which typically change over time. Moves between care settings may be required as health deteriorates. However, in some cases, care setting transitions may have little to do with end-of-life care needs and instead reflect the needs, demands, availability, or funding provisions of the...

RÉSUMÉ Afin de mieux répondre aux préoccupations concernant l’utilisation intensive des hôpitaux par les personnes âgées et l’augmentation subséquente des listes d’attente et de l’attente dans les services de santé hospitaliers au Canada, les données anonymes individuelles des patients hospitalisés en 2014-2015 dans toutes les provinces et territoi...

For 10 years, select Irish nurses and midwives who pass a rigorous 6 month theory and practical program can prescribe medications and other medicinal products. Given the need for timely, accessible, and affordable health-care services in all countries, this nursing/midwifery education and practice development is worthy of examination. Irish nurse/m...

Background: With over 1 million HIV-related deaths annually, quality end-of-life care remains a priority. Given strong public preference for home death, place of death is an important consideration for quality care. This 11 country study aimed to i) describe the number, proportion of all deaths, and demographics of HIV-related deaths; ii) identify...

Lung disease: IMPROVING END-OF-LIFE CARE: Structured palliative care similar to that offered to cancer sufferers should be in place for patients with chronic lung disease. Joachim Cohen at Vrije University in Brussels and co-workers examined international death certificate data collected from 14 countries to determine place of death for patients w...

Moving from one care setting to another is common as death nears. Many concerns exist over these end-of-life (EOL) care setting transitions, including low-quality moves as mistakes and other mishaps can occur. Delayed or denied moves are also problematic, such as a move out of hospital for dying inpatients who want to spend their last hours or days...

Information is needed on the incidence and prevalence of bereavement grief, and factors associated with severe or prolonged grief. Among 1,208 representative Canadian adults, 96% had experienced bereavement grief and 78% were actively grieving at interview. Grief levels were higher among women, Protestants and Catholics, when the death was under 2...

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate attitudes of New Zealanders toward death and dying. We administered an online version of Collett–Lester Fear of Death Scale and Concerns about Dying Instrument subscales to a representative sample of the New Zealand population. One thousand one people responded to the survey, where the larges...

With a shortage of organs for transplantation purposes, many ethical issues confront registered nurses, particularly those involved in making difficult allocation and rejection decisions and those who interact with people who are not successful in gaining a needed organ for survival. This is a theoretical paper aimed at justifying the need for rese...

Background: Marriages are one of the most powerful predictors of health and longevity, yet research in stroke has focused separately on survivors' experience of impairments and how spouses deal with caregiving. Objectives: The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to understand the key themes related to reconstruction or break...

RÉSUMÉ La plupart des recherches concernant les impacts des accidents vasculaires cérébraux (AVC) sur les couples ont été centrées sur la transition vers le rôle de soignant ou de bénéficiaire de soins. Même s’il est bien établi que la source principale du soutien dans les cas de maladies chroniques soit le mariage, il n’existe que peu de données s...

Objective A scoping research literature review on “bad death” was undertaken to assess the overall state of the science on this topic and to determine what evidence exists on how often bad deaths occur, what contributes to or causes a bad death, and what the outcomes and consequences of bad deaths are. Method A search for English-language research...

Poster presentation, preliminary data

Aims and objectives: To establish how common and impactful nursing and healthcare ageism is and whether proven interventions or prevention methods exist. Background: Ageism has been a concern since 1969 when it was first introduced as a concept for social reform. As ageism has been linked to lower quality health services and reduced health care...

Background: Long-standing concern exists over hospital use by people near or at the end of life (EOL) related to the appropriateness, quality, and cost of care in hospital. It is widely believed that most people die in hospital after an escalation in hospital use over the last year of life. As most deaths in high-income countries are not sudden or...

Conclusion: This study shows large cross-national variations in place of death. These variations may relate to health system-related infrastructures and policies, and differences in cultural values related to place of death, although this needs further investigation. The patterns found in this study can inform the development of paediatric palliat...

It is commonly believed that older people are often ill and therefore high users of health services. A pilot study involving older Albertans was conducted to raise interest in the concepts of lifelong health and lifelong health services utilization, begin to develop a lifelong health and health services data collection tool, gain information on lif...

It is commonly believed that older adults are often ill and therefore high users of health services. A pilot study involving adults 60 and older living in the Canadian province of Alberta was conducted to (a) raise interest in the concepts of lifelong health and health services use; (b) develop a lifelong health data collection tool; (c) obtain inf...

Background: End-of-life care must be relevant to the dying person and their family caregiver regardless of where they live. Rural areas are distinct and need special consideration. Gaining end-of-life care experiences and perspectives of rural patients and their family caregivers is needed to ensure optimal rural care. Aims: To describe end-of-l...

Background: To implement the appropriate services and develop adequate interventions, detailed estimates of the needs for palliative care in the population are needed. Aim: To estimate the proportion of decedents potentially in need of palliative care across 12 European and non-European countries. Design: This is a cross-sectional study using dea...

The 'good death' is one objective of palliative care, with many 'good death' viewpoints and research findings reflecting the urban voice. Rural areas are distinct and need special consideration. This scoping review identified and charted current research knowledge on the 'good' rural death through the perspectives of rural residents, including rura...

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate attitudes of New Zealanders towards death and dying. We administered an online version of Collett–Lester Fear of Death Scale and Concerns About Dying Instrument subscales to a representative sample of the New Zealand population. In total, 1001 people responded to the survey. Women reported mo...

Aim and objective: To identify the influence of the culture in Canadian long-term care facilities on the awareness of impending death and initiation of a palliative approach to care for residents aged 85 years and older. Background: Many long-term care residents die after long, dwindling dying trajectories, yet palliative care is often not provi...

Objective: This scoping literature review, through finding and assessing researched bereavement service outcomes, sought to determine the state of bereavement services evaluation, to catalogue service types, and to identify which service or services, if any, demonstrate clear evidence of effectiveness. Method: Our methods included: (1) a literatur...

RÉSUMÉ Cet exercice de cartographie en 2014 avait comme but d’ identifier et de décrire tous les programmes et services de soutien pendant le deuil dans la province entière de l’Alberta, et de les comparer aux ceux-ci disponibles quatre années d’avant. Le deuil est une expérience commune dans la vie, en particulier chez les personnes âgées, et le s...

Objectives: Chronically ill patients often need healthcare and supportive services, with formal homecare services an important source of community-based assistance. Although people diagnosed with 1 or more chronic diseases are thought to be the most common homecare clients, and perhaps the highest users of homecare services, few studies have analy...

Purpose: The places of death for people who died of suicide were compared across eight countries and socio-demographic factors associated with home suicide deaths identified. Methods: Death certificate data were analyzed; using multivariable binary logistic regression to determine associations. Results: National suicide death rates ranged from...

Where people die can influence a number of indicators of the quality of dying. We aimed to describe the place of death of people with cancer and its associations with clinical, socio-demographic and healthcare supply characteristics in 14 countries. Cross-sectional study using death certificate data for all deaths from cancer (ICD-10 codes C00-C97)...

Some people experience more intense and prolonged bereavement grief after the death of a loved one. A mixed-methods study was undertaken out of concern that bereavement grief intensity may be associated with survivor perceptions of a “good” or “bad” death. The qualitative study phase was undertaken after a pilot study revealed bereavement grief int...

The prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is growing, and people are living with this disease well into older age. Little is known about how people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease adapt to aging, particularly the physical changes of aging. According to the Identity Process Theory, people are inclined to attribute age-relate...

Background: Studying where people die across countries can serve as an evidence base for health policy on end-of-life care. This study describes the place of death of people who died from diseases indicative of palliative care need in 14 countries, the association of place of death with cause of death, sociodemographic and healthcare availability c...

Most people prefer to receive end-of-life care in familiar surroundings rather than in hospital. This study examines variation in place of death for people dying from Parkinson's disease (PD) across 11 European and non-European countries. Using death certificate data of 2008 for Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, New Zealand, USA, Can...

Objectives The objective of this study was to examine variation in place of death of older people dying from dementia in countries across 4 continents. Design Study of death certificate data. Methods We included deaths of older (65 + years) people whose underlying cause of death was a dementia-related disease (ICD-10: F01, F02, F03, G30) in Bel...

Background The majority of people dying from chronic diseases prefer to die at home, yet many die in hospitals. Cross-national population-level studies on the place of death are scarce although they can provide important evidence to guide the development and evaluation of public health policies for end-of-life care. We compared the place of death...

Currently, around 55 million people die each year worldwide. That number is expected to increase rapidly with accelerating population aging. Despite growth in the number of palliative care specialists and specialist services in most countries, the prospect of an increasing number of terminally ill and dying persons is daunting. This paper attempts...

Case management was initiated in the 1970s to reduce care discontinuity. A literature review focused on end-of-life (EOL) case management identified 17 research articles, with content analysis revealing two themes: (a) seeking to determine or establish the value of EOL case management and (b) identifying ways to improve EOL case management. The evi...