Only a few studies explore the lifeworld of the spouses of persons affected by early-onset Alzheimer disease (AD). The aim of this study is to explore the lifeworld of spouses when their partners are diagnosed with AD, focusing on spouses' lived experience. The study employs an interpretative phenomenological framework. Ten in-depth interviews are performed. The results show that spouses' lifeworld changes with the diagnosis. They experience an imprisoned existence in which added obligations, fear, and worry keep them trapped at home, both physically and mentally. In their longing for freedom, new strategies and attitudes helps the spouses to create an extended "lived space" with their partner. The findings stress the importance of paying attention to the lifeworld of spouses and making clinical recommendations on this basis. Most importantly, the lifeworld perspective has implications for how we understand what care is. We hope to challenge all different healthcare professionals and invite them to discuss the deep meaning of care and the definition of being professional in encounters with vulnerable others from a lifeworld perspective.

In this study, we explored life satisfaction and sense of coherence in relation to biopsychosocial variables in individuals at risk for the development of familial Alzheimer's disease. Forty nine individuals (response rate: 96%) were interviewed. Life satisfaction was found to be high for the majority of participants. Those who were older than the expected age of onset of disease, those <6 years' inclusion in the Familial Alzheimer's disease biomarker study, and males tended to experience positive psychological health. Sense of coherence was positively associated with satisfaction with life as a whole, psychological health, vocation, and economy. Women seem to be more vulnerable than men, and attention should be given to those who have not passed the age of expected symptom onset. Early and recurrent counseling and psychosocial support were found to be essential. Issues related to vocation and economy are areas of concern, and are closely associated with sense of coherence, life satisfaction, and psychological health. This study emphasizes the importance of professional teams working together with the patient and their families.

Good health is a prerequisite for individuals to function in everyday life. The same applies to newly arrived immigrants, where good health is crucial for successful establishment. The aim of this study was to describe stakeholders’ experiences of how newly arrived immigrants’ health affects their opportunities to establish themselves in society. The study had a qualitative design where open-ended questions were analysed following Braun and Clarke’s guidelines for conducting a qualitative thematic analysis. The results consist of three themes: Mental health problems, disabilities, and tormenting concerns about absent family members; A precarious life situation related to housing, education, and income; and Deficiencies in responding to health challenges in organisations and in society. Stakeholders face health problems among newly arrived immigrants that they do not have the right skills to deal with. We argue for the presence of nurses in organisations working with newly arrived immigrants, and that nurses’ competence is necessary to capture their needs.

Primary health prevention regarding social participation for newly arrivedimmigrants is needed to address challenges when responding to the needs of suchimmigrants in their new and vulnerable situation. The aim of this study was to describe socialparticipation as reported by civil servants and volunteers working with newly arrivedimmigrants in Sweden. Open-ended data collected in a Delphi project targeting civil servantsand volunteers working within the policy establishment programme was used. Qualitativecontent analysis was conducted. The findings show that several interacting factors contributeto resources that create perquisites for “going native in the community” and “being part ofeveryday life” as points of perquisites for how civil servants and volunteers elaborate onsocial participation for newly arrived immigrants. A focus on the “here and now” and avoidingmeasures that “put life on hold” are two points of aspects that generate possibilities forpromoting social participation in health services.

OBJECTIVE: There is limited knowledge about how adolescents with asthma view their disease in daily life and how these views impact on management. The aim of this study was to describe experiences of daily life, with particular focus on thoughts, feelings and management of adolescents with asthma.

METHODS: In this qualitative study, data were obtained from 10 interviews with adolescents (aged 16-18 years) with asthma recruited from the Swedish population-based prospective birth cohort, BAMSE. Data were analysed through Systematic Text Condensation.

RESULTS: Experiences of daily life among adolescents with asthma were defined in four categories: Insight and understanding; Asthma not the focus of daily life; Being acknowledged and, Being affected by asthma symptoms. The adolescents had developed an insight into and understanding of their disease, but did not want asthma to be the focus of their daily lives. The adolescents wanted their asthma to be acknowledged, but not to the point that they were defined by their asthma. They reported having many asthma symptoms, especially during physical activity, but also described a desire to feel healthy, "normal" and like their peers.

CONCLUSIONS: Having asthma in adolescence involves several struggles with ambivalence between adapting socially, feeling healthy and managing one's asthma.

IMPLICATIONS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE: The provision of person-centred care may be one way to handle the ambivalence among adolescents with asthma and thereby help them to manage their asthma.

When the mouth is affected by cancer, difficulties in satisfying basic human needs such as eating, tasting, swallowing, and speaking might arise, and the existential significance of the mouth might become obvious. How does it feel to live with these difficulties? What does it mean to be a human being living with the consequences of oral cancer? Five patients with oral cancer were interviewed a median time of 4 years after the beginning of treatment. A hermeneutic research approach was used to understand, explain, and interpret the transcribed interviews and showed how the consequences of oral cancer affected the being-in-the-world of the participants in three ways: existing as oneself, existing in the eyes of others, and existing with others. Against the background of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, these findings illuminate how essential the mouth is to a human being's identity and existence.

This article explores the possibilities and limits of a hermeneutic way of being in the world, more specifically being a researcher as a part of human, embodied existence. Understanding existence as embodied highlights the subjectivity of a researcher. For a hermeneutic researcher this subjectivity is both a precondition for interpretation and something that might endanger the scientific endeavour. In this article, I examine the possibilities of combining Hans-Georg Gadamer’s empathetic hermeneutics with Paul Ricoeur’s critical hermeneutics as a means of both recognizing and, to some extent, controlling my subjectivity in the research process. With Gabriel Marcel I also argue for hermeneutics as an embodied experience. This is exemplified by my study with a focus on the existential dimensions of the nursing profession. The first part of the article introduces Marcel and his philosophical anthropology concerning our bodily existence as essential for shared lives with others. In the second part, this understanding of self and others is further developed by means of the hermeneutics of Gadamer and Ricoeur. In the third part, I present a way of applying hermeneutics in procedures for interviews, transcription, and analysis of data.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how nurses constitute themselves in encounters with severely ill suffering patients. The self is understood in existential meaning and it is described and analysed in the context of suffering by means of four research questions: How is the professional self constituted in 1) nurses concepts of being professional 2) nurses concepts of the other, the patient 3) nurses concepts of friendship and love in professional encounters 4) nurses concepts of the body? 14 registered nurses have been interviewed and the texts have been interpreted within a hermeneutic and existential framework, mainly influenced by Paul Ricoeur. When it comes to nurses’ concepts of being professional, the study indicates that there is a tension between the professional, the personal and the private fields of their lives. With the second research question the attention is focused on nurses’ images of patients. The interpretations here evolve in the tension found between nurses’ common concepts of professionalism and of being a patient, and their narrations of actual encounters with patients. The main themes when it comes to love, friendship and profession are proximity and distance and the tension between them. The meaning of the lived body in nurses’ narratives is captured in its most concrete appearance, as a touch.

The interpretations of the study are further discussed by means of three models for how nurses constitute themselves in the encounter with patients. The asymmetric relation between a nurse and a patient characterizes these models. The dissertation argues for a fourth model that emanates from the existential framework of the study and where the asymmetric character of the relation fades out and gives space for reciprocity in the professional encounter.

Sweden, like many other European countries, has received a large number of immigrants in the past few years. To tackle the challenge connected with this, a policy for integration including an establishment programme was adopted by the Swedish Government which speeded up the introduction of newly arrived immigrants into the labour market and social life. The implementation of the programme is performed by various stakeholders in the fields of the labour market, language education and non-governmental organisations.The aim of this study was to investigate challenges and barriers to integration from the perspective of stakeholders’ experiences of encounters with newly arrived immigrants. The study used open-ended data collected in a Delphi project targeting civil servants and volunteers working within the policy establishment programme, and a thematic analysis was conducted. The results indicate that focus on organisational structures, issues concerning resources and competence, and a more holistic approach to new arrivals’ existential situationare key areas to address to move towards successful integration.