Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Wendy Duggleby (University of Alberta, Edmonton,  Canada) who describes a study which aimed to (a) explore the transition experience of family caregivers caring for persons with advanced cancer living in the community, (b) describe potential triggers for transitions, (c) identify what influences this experience, and (d) develop a conceptual framework of their transition experience. The study was a meta-synthesis review of qualitative (and mixed-method) research, which described caregiving experiences of family caregivers for community-living persons with advanced cancer at the end of life. Seventy-two studies were included. The study reports how family caregivers experience a “life transition” whereby their lives are permanently altered. The participants described the process of redefining normal which consisted of coming to terms with their situation and connecting with others. Outcomes of these processes were as follows: (a) maintaining a sense of personhood, (b) reframing hope, (c)