A systematic review on the factors associated with positive experiences in carers of someone with cancer.

The aim of this review was to identify the factors associated with positive experiences in non-professional carers of someone with a cancer diagnosis. A systematic search of the following electronic databases was undertaken: Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SocINDEX and Medline. Literature was searched using terms relating to cancer, caring and positive experiences. Additional records were identified through a manual search of relevant reference lists. The search included studies published in English from 1990- June 2015. Two raters were involved in data extraction, quality appraisal, coding, synthesis, and analysis. Evolutionary concept analysis was used as a guiding framework in order to focus on attributes associated with positive experiences. Fifty two articles were included in this review. Analysis identified four overarching attributes: ‘gender’, ‘personal resources’, ‘finding meaning’ and ‘social context’. Despite the challenges associated with caring this combination of internal and external factors enabled some carers to report positive experiences related to caring. This knowledge may be clinically helpful when designing supportive interventions. Strengths and limitations of these claims are discussed.

A review of the effectiveness and meaningfulness of education interventions to enable children, young people and their families to self-care for their gastrostomy tubes in the community.

A systematic review of qualitative and quantitative evidence of the effectiveness and meaningfulness of education interventions to enable children, young people and their families to self-care for their gastrostomy tubes in the community

Interactive support effects on career agency and occupational engagement among young adults.

The PIC model by Gati and Asher describes three career decision making stages: pre-screening, in-depth exploration, and choice of career options. We consider the role that three different forms of support (general career support by parents, emotional/instrumental support, and informational support) may play for young adults in each of these three decision-making stages. The authors further propose that different forms of support may predict career agency and occupational engagement, which are important career decision precedents. In addition, we consider the role of personality traits and perceptions (decision-making window) on these two outcomes. Using an online survey sample (N = 281), we found that general career support was important for career agency and occupational engagement. However, it was the combination of higher general career support with either emotional/instrumental support or informational support that was found to lead to both greater career agency and higher occupational engagement. Personality also played a role: Greater proactivity also led to greater occupational engagement, even when there was little urgency for participants to make decisions (window of decision-making was wide open and not restricted). In practical terms, the findings suggest that the learning required in each of the three PIC processes (pre-screening, in-depth exploration, choice of career options may benefit when the learner has access to the three support measures.