Waiting to return to normal: an exploration of family systems intervention in childhood cancer.

The illness suffering of families in childhood cancer is characterized in part by a loss of family normalcy. Hermeneutic phenomenology and family process research methods were used to analyze videotaped family intervention sessions and post-intervention family/clinician interviews. Within this article, some of the findings from the larger doctoral study that focused on the illness suffering of family members and relational, family systems intervention based on the Illness Beliefs Model are described. Although the larger study included findings of family interventions that addressed several aspects of the illness suffering experienced, this article details specific findings related to the theme of the loss of family normalcy and a longing to return home. Family systems intervention practices which facilitated a lessening of illness suffering included the following: offering new interpretations of suffering within a reflecting team, articulating family strength, sensitively acknowledging the illness suffering, and eliciting the experiences of family members in a shared therapeutic conversation.

Examining pedagogical practices in family systems nursing: intentionality, complexity, and doing well by families.

Teaching graduate family nursing students the important and delicate practice of entering into and mitigating families' illness suffering signifies an educational practice that is rigorous, intense, and contextual, yet not articulated as expounded knowledge. This study examined the pedagogical practices of the advanced practice of Family Systems Nursing (FSN) as taught to master's and doctoral nursing students at the Family Nursing Unit, University of Calgary, using observation of expert and novice clinical practice, live supervision, videotape review, presession hypothesizing, clinical documentation, and the writing of therapeutic letters to families. A triangulation of research methods and data collection strategies, interpretive ethnography, autoethnography, and hermeneutics, were used. Students reported an intensity of learning that had both useful and limiting consequences as they developed skills in therapeutic conversations with families experiencing illness. Faculty used an intentional pedagogical process to encourage growth in perceptual, conceptual, and executive knowledge and skills of working with families.

Beliefs, suffering, and healing: a clinical practice model for families experiencing mental illness.

PURPOSE: Mental illness often changes families' lives and relationships forever. A Family Systems Nursing framework is proposed for working collaboratively with families. CONCLUSIONS: The Illness Beliefs Model (Wright & Bell, 2009) offers clinicians ways to target illness beliefs that may perpetuate or, alternatively, soften suffering. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: We have learned from families that it is often not the family member with the illness who is suffering most, but rather, other family members. The complexity of "relational suffering" challenges mental health nurses to acquire knowledge and skills to work with families to soften physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual suffering.