Report on the 2014 UKONS Annual Conference Belfast, 14–15 November 2014: focus on living with and beyond cancer, patient information and support, and innovations in treatment and care

The UK Oncology Nursing Society’s (UKONS) annual conference focused on three major themes. These were ‘Living With and Beyond Cancer’, ‘Patient Information and Support’, and ‘Innovations in Treatment and Care’. It featured a wide range of presentations, industry satellites, exhibitions, poster discussions. and workshops. Presenters ranged from those eminent in their particular field to those gracing the speaker’s podium for the first time. The rich variety of presentations covered policy, cancer trends, clinical developments, care initiatives, personal development, and advances in practice. There was a strong emphasis on skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes, with the most junior and novice nurses mixing with experienced and highly esteemed practitioners.

“A quiet still voice that just touches”: music’s relevance for adults living with life-threatening cancer diagnoses.

Purpose
Music has historically aided health and loss-adaptation, however, cancer patients’ experience of music for self-care is not well understood. This study examines adult cancer patients’ views about music’s role before and after diagnosis.
Methods
Constructivist approach, with grounded theory informed design using convenience, snowball and theoretical sampling. Patients from Australian metropolitan cancer and hospice settings completed demographic questionnaires and participated in semi-structured interviews. Qualitative inter-rater reliability was applied.
Results
Fifty-two patients reported comparable time spent experiencing music pre-post diagnosis. Music may remain incidental; however, many patients adapt music usage to ameliorate cancer’s aversive effects. Patients often draw from their musical lives and explore unfamiliar music to: remain connected with pre-illness identities; strengthen capacity for enduring treatment, ongoing survival (even when knowing “you’re going to die”), or facing death; reframe upended worlds; and live enriched lives. Patients can ascribe human or physical properties to music when describing its transformative effects. Familiar lyrics maybe reinterpreted, and patients’ intensified emotional reactions to music can reflect their threatened mortality. Sometimes music becomes inaccessible, elusive, and/or intensifies distress and is avoided. Families’, friends’ and professionals’ recognition of patients’ altered musical lives and music-based suggestions can extend patients’ use of music for self-care.
Conclusion
Health professionals can support patients by inquiring about their music behaviours and recognising that altered music usage may signify vulnerability. Although commonly recommended, hospital concerts and music broadcasts need sensitive delivery. Patients’ preferred music should be available in diagnostic, treatment and palliative settings because it can promote endurance and life enrichment.

The Modern Ordinary: Changing culture of living in Egypt’s traditional quarters at the turn of the twentieth Century

Having experienced social and political structures of the 19th century Europe, Western- educated Egyptian elite used public institutions to force legislative structures and procedures that ruled out traditional housing forms and spatial systems. This essay detects direct and indirect impact of these changes that informed the spatial change of modern living in Egypt in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It offers analysis of socio-spatial practices and change in ordinary Cairenes’ modes of everyday living, using social routine and interaction to explain spatial systems and changing house forms during the first quarter of the 20th century. In doing so, the essay utilized archival documents, accounts, formal decrees, and novels of the time as well as conducting survey of house forms and spatial organizations in Old Cairo.

Meeting the needs of visually impaired people living in Lifetime Homes

This article explores perceptions on the suitability and effectiveness of Lifetime Homes Standards (LTHS) for those with visual impairment in Northern Ireland.
LTHS are a series of mandatory United Kingdom (UK) public sector housing design interventions, providing a model for ensuring accessible and adaptable homes throughout an occupant's lifespan. An ageing demographic with increasing incidence of diabetes, has led to rising numbers of elderly visually impaired people wanting to remain in their homes for longer.
Qualitative semi structured interviews were conducted with thirteen key stakeholders and thematically analysed. Although findings show that employing LTHS offers benefits to visually impaired residents, short-comings were also identified. Evidence indicates a need for Policy Makers, Health Care Professionals and Housing Associations to modify practices to better meet the housing needs of visually impaired people. Findings may also be applicable to those with other impairments and disabilities in relation to housing for elderly residents.