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Learning Objective 1: 1. discuss the meaning of veterans sharing military story at end of life
Learning Objective 2: 2. apply the study findings to own practice with veterans at end of life.
Globally, a large population of military veterans exists; many experienced the impact of combat or stress-related horrific duty assignments aligned with war efforts. Military service is known to be a major sentinel event affecting life’s meaning. Military service is often expressed by veterans as one of the major sentinel events affecting life’s purpose and meaning. Thus, at life’s end, there is a need to manage these stressors to achieve a level of personal satisfaction in remaining life. American military veterans may receive end of life care in a hospice setting for comfort, care, and support.
The purpose of this pilot study are to determine if: (a) military veterans in hospice care, who tell their military service stories, express improved satisfaction at the end of life and (b) primary caregivers of military veterans in hospice care perceive that their loved one experiences improved satisfaction at the end of life after telling their military service stories.
Sample: Convenience sample of 14 veterans in hospice care (no cognitive impairments, physically able to speak (English) and answer questions, and their primary caregivers.
Procedures: Veterans selected with hospice medical director. Purpose of 4 visits: I. Study explained; informed consent obtained; II. Digital recording of veteran’s military story via a semi-structured interview ; III. Veteran and primary caregiver independently complete Post Story Telling (PST) survey, an 11 item investigator-developed survey reflecting concepts typically found in quality of life instruments; IV. Second administration of PST survey to veteran and primary caregiver.
Data analyses:
The transcription of interview will be coded prior to identification of themes under the guidance of a qualitative researcher. A software program for qualitative analysis may be used. The survey data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA.
Findings/Implications for practice
Data collection in progress; analysis planned for summer 2011.