A focused mapping review and synthesis of current practice in qualitative end of life research with the bereaved
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

A focused mapping review and synthesis of current practice in qualitative end of life research with the bereaved

Kay Joanne McCallum Doctoral researcher, Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Research, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England
Debra Jackson Professor of nursing, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, Sydney, Australia
Helen Walthall Programme lead, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England
Helen Aveyard Principal lecturer student experience, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England

Background Nursing research is dedicated to improving care, but research into end of life care can be challenging because of a possible reluctance by researchers to invite bereaved people to take part in studies.

Aim To use a focused mapping approach to explore the recruitment to studies of grieving and bereaved people.

Discussion There is no ‘gold standard’ method of recruitment and no best way to approach participants. The outcome of each method, measured by the percentage of potential participants recruited, appears to be unrelated to the approach used.

Conclusion There is no evidence that participation in research harms those who have recently been bereaved, but there is evidence of benefits from participating.

Implications for practice Researchers should not feel they need to protect the bereaved from participating in research and can invite bereaved individuals to join a study without worrying about causing them harm.

Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2019.e1668

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

16113566@brookes.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

McCallum K, Jackson D, Walthall H et al (2019) A focused mapping review and synthesis of current practice in qualitative end of life research with the bereaved. Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2019.e1668

Published online: 22 August 2019

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