ArticleInternational journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being2018
Encountering existential loneliness among older people: perspectives of health care professionals.
Article in International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Encountering patients in grief due to the death of a loved one: nurses' experiences in municipal home care - a qualitative study.Journal of research in nursing : JRN · 2026Article
- Nurses' perspectives on clinical competence to identify loneliness and depression in older people in home care: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Challenges for staff encountering older people's existential concerns: Swedish first-line managers' views. A cross-sectional study.Scandinavian journal of caring sciences · 2025Article
- Nurse assistants' experiences of encountering patients in grief due to the death of a loved one - a qualitative study in municipal health and social care.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Review
- Older persons making a life closure: experiences of loneliness in an academic nursing home - a phenomenological qualitative interview study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Article
- Older people's experience and related factors while receiving home-based long-term care services: a qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Social Contact and Belonging Among Older People Receiving Home Care Nursing.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Nurses' experiences of using the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale with patients in specialized palliative care-A qualitative focus group study.Nursing open · 2023Article
- Perspectives on existential loneliness. Narrations by older people in different care contexts.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2023Article
- A Digital Gaming Intervention to Strengthen the Social Networks of Older Dutch Adults: Mixed Methods Process Evaluation of a Digitally Conducted Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- The Emmaus Project: Aging, Illness, and Dying Among Older Christians-A Qualitative Study.The Linacre quarterly · 2023Article
- Existential Loneliness Among Older People from the Perspective of Health Care Professionals: A European Multicenter Study.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- Healthcare Professionals' Viewpoint on Existential Loneliness in Older Individuals [Letter].Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- Deeply lonely in the borderland between childhood and adulthood - Experiences of existential loneliness as narrated by adolescents.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2022Article
- Existential aspects documented in older people's patient records in the context of specialized palliative care: a retrospective review.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Conditions for Feasibility of a Multicomponent Intervention to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness in Noninstitutionalized Older Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Despite Symptom Severity, do Nursing Home Residents Experience Joy-of-Life? The Associations Between Joy-of-Life and Symptom Severity in Norwegian Nursing Home Residents.Journal of holistic nursing : official journal of the American Holistic Nurses' Association · 2022Article
- Nurses' experiences of encounters in home care: a phenomenological hermeneutic study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2021Article
- A Conceptual Review of Loneliness in Adults: Qualitative Evidence Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeExistential loneliness is part of being human that is little understood in health care, but, to provide good care to their older patients, professionals need to be able to meet their existential concerns. The aim of this study was to explore health care professionals' experiences of their encounters with older people they perceive to experience existential loneliness.
methodWe conducted 11 focus groups with 61 health professionals working in home care, nursing home care, palliative care, primary care, hospital care, or pre-hospital care. Our deductive-inductive analytical approach used a theoretical framework based on the work of Emmy van Deurzen in the deductive phase and an interpretative approach in the inductive phase.
resultsThe results show that professionals perceived existential loneliness to appear in various forms associated with barriers in their encounters, such as the older people's bodily limitations, demands and needs perceived as insatiable, personal shield of privacy, or fear and difficulty in encountering existential issues.
conclusionEncountering existential loneliness affected the professionals and their feelings in various ways, but they generally found the experience both challenging and meaningful.
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