Care needs of dying patients and their family caregivers in hospice and palliative care in mainland China: a meta-synthesis of qualitative and quantitative studies.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the care needs of dying patients and their family caregivers in hospice and palliative care in mainland China. METHODS: A search for English and Chinese quantitative and qualitative studies was performed using the following English databases: PubMed (Medline), CINAHL and PsycINFO, as well as Chinese databases: SinoMed and CNKI. The records were independently screened by two reviewers and critiqued using Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tools. All quantitative data were transformed into qualitative data, which were converted into textual descriptions. Due to the diversity of included studies, a three-step analysis was performed: narrative summary, thematic analysis and presentation of integrated results in a narrative form. The qualitative findings were pooled using the meta-aggregation approach. RESULTS: The literature search identified 2964 papers after removing duplicates, from which 18 were included (9 quantitative and 9 qualitative studies). All studies were conducted in mainland China. Quantitative studies involved cross-sectional surveys, and qualitative studies involved interviews for data collection. Two synthesised results of patients' needs were identified, including needs to be comfortable and experience a good death. Another two synthesised results of family caregivers' needs included needs to care for and improve the quality of life of patients, and to care for themselves well. CONCLUSION: This study identified that patients and family caregivers have an increasing demand for professional care at the end of life. Professionals, especially nurses, should enact a patients' demand-centred practice to overcome the challenges of organisation, education, emotion and communication to provide high-quality end-of-life care.

[Adsorption of phenanthrene from aqueous solution on cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB) -modified zeolite].

Surfactant-modified zeolites (SMZs) with different coverage types were prepared by loading of different amounts of cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB) onto natural zeolites and were used as adsorbents to remove phenanthrene from aqueous solution. The adsorption of phenanthrene from aqueous solution on monolayer and bilayer SMZs as a function of adsorbent dosage, initial phenanthrene concentration, contact time, and temperature was investigated using batch experiments. Results showed monolayer and bilayer SMZs were effective for the removal of phenanthrene from aqueous solution. The phenanthrene removal efficiency of SMZs increased with increasing adsorbent dosage, but the amount of phenanthrene adsorbed on SMZs decreased with increasing adsorbent dosage. The adsorption kinetics of phenanthrene on SMZs well followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The equilibrium adsorption data of phenanthrene on SMZs at a low concentration of phenanthrene in solution could be described by the Linear equation and Freundlich equation. The main mechanism for phenanthrene adsorption onto monolayer SMZ is hydrophobic interaction, and the main mechanism for phenanthrene adsorption onto bilayer SMZ is organic partitioning. The calculated thermodynamic parameters such as Gibbs free energy change (deltaG(theta)), enthalpy changes (deltaH(theta)), and entropy change (deltaS(theta)) showed that the adsorption process of phenanthrene on SMZs is spontaneous and exothermic in nature. When the CPB loading amount of bilayer SMZ was twice as much as that of monolayer SMZ, the phenanthrene adsorption capacity for bilayer SMZ was slightly higher than that for monolayer SMZ. In a conclusion, both monolayer and bilayer SMZs are promising adsorbents for the removal of phenanthrene from water and wastewater, and monolayer SMZ is a more cost-effective adsorbent for phenanthrene removal than bilayer SMZ.