ReviewBMC palliative care2017
Honoring the voices of bereaved caregivers: a Metasummary of qualitative research.
Review in BMC palliative care, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Family Bereavement Support Interventions in Specialist Adult Palliative Care: A Rapid Mixed-Methods Systematic Review.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of sedative practices on grief in the spouse of a patient who has died of cancer. An international systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Family experiences with palliative care for children at home: a systematic literature review.BMC palliative care · 2020Pooled it
- Beyond grief: Quantifying bereavement needs of rural family caregivers.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Trial
- 'I'm tired of justifying why my life has stopped': A qualitative analysis of the experiences and support needs of young people caring at the end of life and into bereavement.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Article
- Volunteering of Former Caregivers: A Pilot Intervention Study in the Chinese American Community.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2025Article
- A qualitative exploration of the impact of healthcare pre- and post-death on bereavement experiences.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Awareness of Care Managers Concerning Grief Care for Older Bereaved Individuals Living Alone Following the Loss of Their Spouse: A Qualitative Research.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Grief, bereavement and prolonged grief disorder: scoping and mapping the evidence.BJPsych open · 2025Review
- 'Regrets become a lasting source of pain': A qualitative study on family caregivers' experiences leading up to a relative's death.Palliative medicine · 2025Article
- Who cares for the carers? carerhelp: development and evaluation of an online resource to support the wellbeing of those caring for family members at the end of their life.BMC palliative care · 2023Review
- Exploring Experiences of Bereaved Caregivers of Older Adult Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia.Clinical journal of oncology nursing · 2022Article
- Mitigating End-of-Life Burden: Parallel Perspectives of Physician-Patients & Family Caregivers.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2022Article
- Caregiver bereavement outcomes in advanced cancer: associations with quality of death and patient age.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Article
- Subjective burdens among informal caregivers of critically ill patients: a cross-sectional study in rural Shandong, China.BMC palliative care · 2021Article
- Higher levels of unmet support needs in spouses are associated with poorer quality of life - a descriptive cross-sectional study in the context of palliative home care.BMC palliative care · 2021Article
- Perceptions of Bereaved Caregivers and Clinicians About End-of-Life Care for Patients With Destination Therapy Left Ventricular Assist Devices.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2021Article
- Ethical challenges in family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer - a qualitative study.BMC palliative care · 2020Article
- Measuring quality of life in life-threatening illness - content validity and response processes of MQOL-E and QOLLTI-F in Swedish patients and family carers.BMC palliative care · 2020Article
- Perspectives of bereaved relatives of patients with haematological malignancies concerning preferred place of care and death: A qualitative study.Palliative medicine · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFamily caregiving in the context of advanced disease in particular, can be physically and emotionally taxing. Caregivers can subsequently face bereavement exhausted with few supports, limited resources and a significant proportion will develop negative psychological and social outcomes. Although some research has attended to the bereavement experiences of family caregivers who had cared for a person requiring palliative care, a comprehensive qualitative understanding of the impact of caregiving on bereavement has not been articulated. The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative metasummary to explore the experiences of bereaved family caregivers of people who received palliative care services, regardless of their underlying disease.
methodsSandelowski and Barroso's qualitative metasummary method was utilized: 1287 articles were identified through extensive database searches (i.e. - MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and CINAHL) and reviewed to determine if they fit the criteria. Those included in the review were assessed for study quality. Findings from each study were then thematically coded and a frequency of themes was calculated.
resultsThe sample consisted of 47 qualitative studies. A total of 15 themes emerged. In descending order of frequency, the 15 themes were: the individual emotions of serenity, sadness, guilt, uncertainty, trauma, escape, and anger; post-loss experiences that helped the caregiver in bereavement; post-loss experiences that hindered; practical life changes; caregiver role identity; pre-loss experiences that helped; pre-loss experiences that hindered; caregiver context; and a need for different kinds of supports. Three key findings emerged from the themes: (1) many different aspects of the caregiving experience impact the bereavement experience, (2) every bereavement experience is unique, and (3) a variety of supports must be developed and made available to caregivers to meet these unique needs.
conclusionsBased on the metasummary findings, changes are needed in practice and policy to ensure the health and well-being of the family caregiver is maintained by offering support both during caregiving and bereavement.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.