Theodicy and End-of-Life Care

Acknowledgments The section on Islamic perspective is contributed by information provided by Imranali Panjwani, Tutor in Theology & Religious Studies, King's College London.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Patient ratings in exercise therapy for the management of tendinopathy: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

The objective of this study was to synthesise exercise therapy intervention data investigating patient rating outcomes for the management of tendinopathy. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials investigating exercise therapy interventions and reporting patient rating outcomes were undertaken. Eligible settings were considered to be any setting in any country listed as very high on the human development index. Eligible participants were considered to be people with a diagnosis of any tendinopathy of any severity or duration. Exercise therapy for the management of tendinopathy was considered for inclusion based on alignment with five different therapy classes: 1) resistance; 2) plyometric; 3) vibration; 4) flexibility; and 5) movement pattern retraining modalities. The main outcomes sought were those that measured patient rating of condition, including patient satisfaction and Global Rating of Change (GROC). From a total of 124 exercise therapy studies, 34 (Achilles: 41%; rotator cuff: 32%; patellar: 15%; elbow: 9%; and gluteal: 3%) provided sufficient information to be meta-analysed. The data were obtained across 48 treatment arms and 1246 participants. The pooled estimate for proportion of satisfaction was 0.63 [95% CrI: 0.53 to 0.73], and the pooled estimate for percentage of maximum GROC was 53 [95% CrI: 38 to 69%]. The proportion of patients reporting positive satisfaction and perception of change increased with longer follow-up periods from treatment onset. Patient satisfaction and GROC appear similar and are ranked moderately high demonstrating that patients generally perceive exercise therapies positively. Further research including greater consistency in measurement tools is required to explore and where possible, identify patient- and exercise-related moderating factors that can be used to improve person-centred care

Journeying with Morrie: challenging notions of professional delivery of spiritual care at the end of life

The spiritual welfare of dying people has in recent years moved from the domain of religion to become the concern of health care professionals, particularly as part of the ideal of holism that underpins palliative care. Professional delivery of spiritual care incorporates the features of assessment, control and treatment which may involve varying degrees of intrusion into the patient's deeply personal inner self. Using a case study approach, this article explores meanings of spirituality and understandings of what is meant by the term 'spiritual care'. It argues that biographical and community approaches to spiritual care of dying people may be more congruent with the concept of the 'whole person' because this support is rooted in an intimate contextual knowledge of the dying person by the caregiver. This challenges the dominant discourses of professional expertise to embrace informal personal and collective competence in this important aspect of end of life care

The Lantern Vol. 27, No. 2, Spring 1959

• The Case for a Stratified Society • Education Courses • Some Thoughts for God\u27s Thinking Creatures • Sawdust to the Oats? • To Change the Things I Can... • Vignette • I Meet Goliath • Reverie and Reminiscence • On Flight • In Defense of Jazz • A Description • Line of Retreat • Alan Lomax and the American Folk Song • Dawn Stillness • Seasons • Two Poems • Despair • Too Late • Education • For All Practical Purposes He Was Bald • Contrast • I Belong to the Sea • Waves • Love • The Glory and the Dreamhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1077/thumbnail.jp

The philosopher of ambiguity: exploring stories of spirituality of people with aphasia through the lens of Merleau-Ponty

Spirituality as a concept has only recently begun to be considered in speech and language therapy research and practice, and phenomenology as a research methodology is also not widely used in SLT research. Yet, concepts propounded by the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty arguably offer a useful theoretical framework from which to view certain aspects of SLT including the concept of spirituality and how this is expressed by people with a communication difficulty. In this project, eight people with aphasia were interviewed about their spirituality. The interviews were transcribed, themes identified and stories created. These stories were viewed using one of the concepts propounded by Merleau-Ponty, namely ambiguity