Nurses are significant in assisting in patients' spiritual expression. Nurses' needs for training in listening skills, confidence in discussing spiritual issues, and time to provide individualized spiritual care should be assessed to ensure optimal patient expression.

Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology, although providing an appropriate philosophical foundation for research in the social sciences that seeks to investigate the meaning of lived experience, does not provide clarity of process, making it difficult to assign the degree of rigor to the work demanded in an era dominated by the positivist paradigm. Ricoeur (1981) further developed both Heidegger's and Gadamer's ideas, in the areas of method and interpretation of hermeneutic phenomenological research, in a direction that has addressed this difficulty. In this article the authors outline Ricoeur's theory, including three levels of data analysis, describe its application to the interpretation of data, and discuss two apparent contradictions in his theory. Ricoeur's theory of interpretation, as a tool for the interpretation of data in studies whose philosophical underpinning is hermeneutic phenomenology, deserves consideration by human sciences researchers who seek to provide a rigorous foundation for their work.

The findings offer insight into the experiences felt by caregivers when their relative or friend with dementia is admitted to hospital. Implications of this study include the need to improve the transition process for the caregiver by allowing them to be involved in the decision-making process, keeping them informed of care decisions, and importantly, providing emotional support to help the caregiver positively adapt to this transition.

Hospital admission of a person with dementia can have a significant impact on the family carer, who temporarily relinquishes caring to health professionals. A descriptive qualitative design using in-depth interviews with a conversational approach was used to elicit data. Adjusting to the change in the carer's role can be challenging and result in feelings of helplessness, loneliness, loss of control and being undervalued. Family support can assist with the transition but family conflict increases anxiety. Good communication between clinicians and the carer is vital. The carer should be included in decision-making as the 'expert' in the care of the person with dementia. This article discusses findings of a larger study specifically related to the emotional support required for the carers of people with dementia, who are admitted to hospital. The carer and the patient must be considered as a dyad in relation to discharge planning.

Gaining an understanding of crowd behavior is important in supporting timely and appropriate crowd management principles in the planning and provision of emergency services at mass gatherings. This paper provides a review of the current understanding of the psychological factors of a crowd within the psychosocial domain as they apply to mass-gathering settings.It can be concluded from this review that there is a large theory-practice gap in relation to crowd psychology and the mass-gathering setting. The literature has highlighted two important elements of crowd behavior—there must be a “seed” and people must engage. Understanding these behaviors may provide opportunities to change crowd behavior outcomes.