The experiences of family resilience in patients with permanent colostomy and their spouses: A dyadic qualitative study.

PURPOSE: With the prolonged survival time of patients with permanent colostomy for colorectal cancer, they and their spouses face tremendous pressure and development dilemmas that can easily lead to family adaptation crises. This qualitative study amid to explore the dyadic experiences of family resilience among Chinese patients with permanent colostomy and their spouses. METHODS: A phenomenological research method was adopted. Semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 10 dyads of patients with permanent colostomy and their spouses were recruited through purposive sampling from a public tertiary hospital in China from March 2023 to July 2023.The Dyadic interview analysis and Colaizzi methods were used to analyze the interview data. RESULTS: Three themes and nine subthemes were developed. (1) family crisis and dichotomous coping with stress-family crisis and coping pressure caused by enterostomy; (2) Adjustment and adaptation within the family-Joint adjustment and adaptation within the couple's family; and (3) integration and utilization of multi-dimensional social external resources (micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level). CONCLUSIONS: Couples living with permanent colostomy often undergo a complex emotional journey, experiencing varied levels of individual stress as they navigate social interactions and daily activities, which can contribute to a decline in family adaptation. With the help of the perspective of family advantage, health practitioners should pay attention to the evaluation of individual factors and family environmental resources, to fully mobilize advantage resources and give effective interventions to improve the family and social adaptation level of patients and their spouses.

An easy way to prepare monolithic inorganic oxide aerogels.

Inorganic oxide aerogels have unique thermal, optical, electrical, magnetic, and chemical properties, which result in them potentially having a broad range of applications. However, their preparation is commonly based on a supercritical drying method, which greatly limits real applications of aerogels and their commercialization. Here we demonstrate a general method for drying wet gels to form aerogels that is based on the sublimation of organic solvent. The organic solvent must have a low surface tension, undergo sublimation easily, and have a high freezing point to allow the rapid synthesis of monolithic inorganic oxide aerogels under vacuum conditions. This cost-effective process will facilitate application of aerogel materials. This approach may also be used for the preparation of other porous materials, whose theoretical and practical applications should be investigated.