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BACKGROUND: Despite the substantial number of older adults suffering from gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms little is known regarding the character of these complaints and whether they are associated with an altered intestinal barrier function and psychological distress. Our aim was to explore the relationship between self-reported gut health, intestinal permeability and psychological distress among older adults.

METHODS: Three study populations were included: 1) older adults with GI symptoms (n = 24), 2) a group of older adults representing the general elderly population in Sweden (n = 22) and 3) senior orienteering athletes as a potential model of healthy ageing (n = 27). Questionnaire data on gut-health, psychological distress and level of physical activity were collected. Intestinal permeability was measured by quantifying zonulin in plasma. The level of systemic and local inflammation was monitored by measuring C-reactive protein (CRP), hydrogen peroxide in plasma and calprotectin in stool samples. The relationship between biomarkers and questionnaire data in the different study populations was illustrated using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA).

RESULTS: Older adults with GI symptoms displayed significantly higher levels of both zonulin and psychological distress than both general older adults and senior orienteering athletes. The PCA analysis revealed a separation between senior orienteering athletes and older adults with GI symptoms and showed an association between GI symptoms, psychological distress and zonulin.

CONCLUSIONS: Older adults with GI symptoms express increased plasma levels of zonulin, which might reflect an augmented intestinal permeability. In addition, this group suffer from higher psychological distress compared to general older adults and senior orienteering athletes. This relationship was further confirmed by a PCA plot, which illustrated an association between GI symptoms, psychological distress and intestinal permeability.

Ever more people are in paid work following the age of state pension availability, and yet the experience of working in this phase of the late career has been little studied. We interviewed a purposive sample of 25 Swedish people in their mid- to late sixties and early seventies, many of whom were or had recently been working while claiming an old-age pension. The data were analysed with constant comparative analysis in which we described and refined categories through the writing of analytic memos and diagramming. We observed that paid work took place within a particular material, normative and emotional landscape: a stable and secure pension income decommodifying these workers from the labour market, a social norm of a retired lifestyle and a looming sense of contraction of the future. This landscape made paid work in these years distinctive: characterised by immediate intrinsic rewards and processes of containing and reaffirming commitments to jobs. The oldest workers were able to craft assertively the temporal flexibility of their jobs in order to protect the autonomy and freedom that retirement represented and retain favoured job characteristics. Employed on short-term (hourly) contracts or self-employed, participants continually reassessed their decision to work. Participation in paid work in the retirement years is a distinctive second stage in the late career which blends the second and third ages.

Introduction: The provision of home health care services increases as a desirable option in western society. Previous studies indicate that health care professionals encounter ethically difficult situations when providing home care services. There is a lack of studies describing ethically difficult situations through observation. This study aimed to explore ethical issues experienced by healthcare staff when providing community home care services.

Methods: Qualitative design, using the ethnographical approach. Data gathered as fieldwork in terms of memos, non-participant observation and informal interview with registered nurses (n=8), and nurse-assistants (n=4) during three weeks (in total 148 hours, 7am -5pm) .

Results: The result generated two main categories: 1) To balance stakeholders‟ requirements, and, 2) Strategy to deal with ethical issues. Coxing was used as a strategy to deal with ethically difficult situations in patient care. The results showed that the complexity of the ethical issues is often related to personal values and organisational impact. The staff experienced need for a structured approach to assist them in identifying, analysing, and resolving ethical issues that arise in clinical practice. Health care organisations, personnel and patients are disagreed about values and choices that could lead to the best course of actions.

Conclusion: This study reveals that the ethically difficult situations in the context of community home care services are complex and are influencing the provision of care. The personnel enforced to find a balance between different expectations and from different stakeholders. To deal with these situations coaxing was used as a strategy for managing ethical issues.

Keywords: Homecare nursing, Healthcare professional, Ethics

Background: Health care professionals have encountered ethically difficult situations for decades in their clinical practice. Various clinical ethics support has been established in order to deal with these issues. Moral case deliberation is a new developed approach that deliberates over ethically difficult cases in clinical practice. However, there is lack of knowledge that describes the characteristics of the moral case deliberation and how this differs to related clinical ethics support where a concept analysis may clarify the differences. Aim: To analyse the concept of moral case deliberation and related concepts. Methods: Integrative literature review. Rodger’s evolutionary view of concept analysis has been used for clarification of the concept. Using specific keywords in the databases, searching for peer-reviewed academic paper published in English between 1995-2017 in the CINAHL, MEDLINE, Psych Info, Academic Search Elite and AMED. Results: Moral case deliberation (MCD) was defined as an approach with four specific characteristics: 1) Perspective sharing via dialogue, 2) training moral awareness, 3) moral emotional deliberation, and 4) moral support and joint learning. The presence of a facilitator who is trained in a specific method for the MCD reflection seemed to be important when stimulating the discussion from a patient perspective. Conclusions: Clarify the concept of moral case deliberation can be useful for healthcare professionals when choosing a facilitate-base reflection. Through a mutual dialogue and perspective sharing can MCD train staff members in moral awareness, create a space for emotions to be expressed and finally work as an platform for joint learning.

Healthcare personnel encounter ethically difficult situations in their everyday work and clinical ethics support might be important to support healthcare personnel to deal with these situations. The overall aim of this thesis was to describe perspectives on clinical ethics support, experiences of being in ethically difficult situations and experiences of facilitating ethics reflection. Methods. Study I had a descriptive design in which research articles were reviewed (n=54). In study II audio-recorded moral case deliberation (n=70) in 10 Swedish workplaces in hospitals and community care were analysed. In study III interviews were conducted with facilitators (n=11) of moral case deliberation. Study IV used non-participant observation during three weeks as well as informal conversations with healthcare personnel (n=12) in community home healthcare. Results and conclusion. In study I, two perspectives emerged on clinical ethics support, a “Top-down” perspective, where an individual or a group of “experts” in ethics could recommend the best course of action and a “Bottom-up” perspective that allows healthcare personnel to manage ethically difficult situations through ethical reflections led by a facilitator. Studies II and IV showed how ethically difficult situations on different levels are often connected with emotions and uncertainties. Study III showed the role of the facilitator to be fundamental in creating a space for self-reflection among healthcare personnel. Study IV showed that healthcare personnel face complex demands and expectations from the healthcare organization regarding the provision of care as well as having to meet the needs of patients and their next-of-kin. To conclude, healthcare personnel needed to find a balance among demands and expectations in order to satisfy those stakeholders involved and they had to seek compromise. There is a need for clinical ethics support that helps healthcare personnel reflect individually and collectively on ethically difficult situations they encounter in their everyday clinical practice. From this standpoint, a “Bottom-up” perspective may reduce the risk of moral distress among healthcare personnel and promote care based on person-centred values.

Background: The general opinion in society is that everyone has the right to live in their own home as long as possible. Provision of community home health care services is therefore increasingly common. Healthcare personnel encounter ethically difficult situations when providing care, but few studies describe such situations in the context of community home health care services. Method: This study has a qualitative descriptive design, using focused ethnography. Data from 21 days of fieldwork (in total 123 h) consisting of non-participant observations (n = 122), memos and informal interviews with registered nurses (n = 8), and nurse assistants (n = 4). The transcribed texts were analyzed with interpretive content analysis. Results: The inductive analyses revealed two categories: 1) difficulties in balancing different requirements, expectations and needs, and 2) use of coping strategies. The results demonstrate that there are different values and expectations that influence each other in a complex manner. The personnel dealt with these situations by generating strategies of coaxing the patients and finding a space to deliberate and share difficult emotions with their colleagues. Conclusions: This study reveals that complex ethically difficult situations emerged in the context of community home health care services, and healthcare personnel were forced to find a balance regarding the different demands, expectations, values and needs that influence the care provided.

Background: Ethically difficult situations are frequently encountered by healthcare professionals. Moral case deliberation is one form of clinical ethics support, which has the goal to support staff to manage ethical difficulties. However, little is known which difficult situations healthcare teams need to discuss.

Aim: To explore which kinds of ethically difficult situations interprofessional healthcare teams raise during moral case deliberation.

Research design: A series of 70 moral case deliberation sessions were audio-recorded in 10 Swedish workplaces. A descriptive, qualitative approach was applied, using thematic content analysis.

Ethical considerations: An advisory statement specifying no objections to the study was provided from an Ethical Review Board, and consent to be recorded was assumed by virtue of participation in the moral case deliberation.

Findings: Three themes emerged: powerlessness over managing difficult interactions with patients and next-of-kin, unease over unsafe and unequal care, and uncertainty over who should have power over care decisions. The powerlessness comprised feelings of insufficiency, difficulties to respond or manage patient's/next-of-kin's emotional needs or emotional outbursts and discouragement over motivating patients not taking responsibility for themselves. They could be uncertain over the patient's autonomy, who should have power over life and death, disclosing the truth or how much power next-of-kin should have.

Discussion: The findings suggest that the nature of the ethically difficult situations brought to moral case deliberations contained more relational-oriented ethics than principle-based ethics, were permeated by emotions and the uncertainties were pervaded by power aspects between stakeholders.

Conclusion: MCD can be useful in understanding the connection between ethical issues and emotions from a team perspective.

Moral case deliberation is one form of clinical ethics support, and there seems to be different ways of facilitating thedialogue. This paper aimed to explore the personal experiences of Swedish facilitators of their role in moral casedeliberations. Being a facilitator was understood through the metaphor of sailing: against the wind or with it. Therole was likened to a sailor’s set of skills: to promote security and well-being of the crew, to help crew navigate theirmoral reflections, to sail a course into the wind against homogeneity, to accommodate the crew’s needs and just sail withthe wind, and to steer towards a harbour with authority and expertise. Balancing the disparate roles of being accom-modative and challenging may create a free space for emotions and ideas, including self-reflection and consideration ofmoral demands. This research opens the question of whether all these skills can be taught through systematic training orwhether facilitators need to possess the characteristics of being therapeutic, pedagogical, provocative, sensitive andauthoritarian.

This study describes which clinical ethics approaches are available to support healthcare personnel in clinical practice in terms of their construction, functions and goals. Healthcare personnel frequently face ethically difficult situations in the course of their work and these issues cover a wide range of areas from prenatal care to end-of-life care. Although various forms of clinical ethics support have been developed, to our knowledge there is a lack of review studies describing which ethics support approaches are available, how they are constructed and their goals in supporting healthcare personnel in clinical practice. This study engages in an integrative literature review. We searched for peer-reviewed academic articles written in English between 2000 and 2016 using specific Mesh terms and manual keywords in CINAHL, MEDLINE and Psych INFO databases. In total, 54 articles worldwide described clinical ethics support approaches that include clinical ethics consultation, clinical ethics committees, moral case deliberation, ethics rounds, ethics discussion groups, and ethics reflection groups. Clinical ethics consultation and clinical ethics committees have various roles and functions in different coun-tries. They can provide healthcare personnel with advice and recommendations regarding the best course of action. Moral case deliberation, ethics rounds, ethics discussion groups and ethics reflection groups support the idea that group reflection increases insight into ethical issues. Clinical ethics support in the form of a ‘‘bot-tom-up’’ perspective might give healthcare personnel opportunities to think and reflect more than a ‘‘top-down’’ perspective. A ‘‘bottom-up’’ approach leaves the healthcare personnel with the moral responsibility for their choice of action in clinical practice, while a ‘‘top-down’’ approach risks removing such moral responsibility.

AIM: Previous research has mainly focused on the advantages of PCC and less on its disadvantages. Hence, there is a need to further explore the recent research regard-ing PCC from both sides. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to elucidate the advan-tages and disadvantages of PCC.

DESIGN: Discussion paper.

METHODS: We searched relevant literature published January 2000–March 2018 in PubMed, Medline, CHINAL, Scopus and Web of Science.

RESULTS: The results showed that PCC can contribute to improved health and well-being, improved mutual interaction in relationships, improved cost-effectiveness and im-proved work environment, while the disadvantages can involve increased personal and financial costs, exclusion of certain groups, increased personal and financial costs, exclu-sion of staff's personhood and unfairness due to empathy. An analysis of the existing literature on PCC showed paradoxes, which call for further investigation.