Our world is rapidly becoming a global community. This creates a need for us to further understand the universal phenomena of death and professional care for dying persons. A transcultural study was undertaken using a phenomenological approach to illuminate the meaning of nurses' experiences of professional development in the contexts of Iran and Sweden. Eight registered nurses working in oncology units in Tehran, Iran, and eight working in the context of a hospital and private homes in northern Sweden were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using the principles of phenomenological hermeneutics inspired by Paul Ricoeur. A naive reading guided a structural analysis, which yielded four main themes: coping with existential, organizational, and cultural contexts; sharing knowledge, experiences, and responsibilities; using embodied knowledge; and developing personal competence. The interpreted comprehensive understanding revealed that the meaning of professional development is that it actualizes other-oriented values and self-oriented values. Caring professionally for dying people was a learning process that could help nurses to develop their personal and professional lives when they were supported by teamwork, reflective practice, and counselling.

Objective: Our world is rapidly becoming a global community, which creates a need to further understand the universal phenomena of death and professional caring for dying persons This study thus was conducted to describe the meaning of nurses' experiences of caring for dying people in the cultural contexts of Iran and Sweden. Materials and Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, phenomenon of caring for dying people was studied.Eight registered nurses who were working in oncology units in Tehran, Iran and eight registered nurses working in hospital and home care in North part of Sweden were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using the principles of phenomenological hermeneutics. Results: The findings were formulated based on two themes included: (1) "Sharing space and time to be lost", and (2) "Caring is a learning process Conclusions: The results showed that being with dying people raise an ethical demand that calls for personal and professional response, regardless of sex, culture or context The physical and organizational context must be supportive and enable nurses to stand up to the demands of close relationships Specific units and teamwork across various personnel seem to be a solution that is missing in Iran.

Aim: To compare the attitudes of Iranian and Swedish nursing students toward caring for dying persons. Materials and Methods: Their attitudes were measured with the Frommelt′s Attitude Toward Caring of the Dying and the Death Attitude Profile Revised. Results: The results indicated that the participating Iranian students were more afraid of death and less likely to give care to dying persons than the Swedish participants. Conclusion: It is suggested that theoretical education should be individualized and culturally sensitive in order to positively influence the students′ attitudes, and promote professional development.

Aim. This paper is a report of a study conducted to elucidate the meaning of a caring relationship with people with cancer.

Background. A caring relationship becomes the most important focus of caregiving when treatment of the body has reached the limits where cure is no longer expected. Caring as perceived by people with cancer involves nurses having professional attitudes and skills in order to provide good care, including emotional and practical support.

Methods. A phenomenological hermeneutic approach influenced by Ricoeur was used. Eight nurses working in an oncology unit in Iran were interviewed in 2007 about their experiences of caring relationships with people who have cancer.

Findings. The findings were interpreted as getting involved in a mutual/demanding close relationship. Closeness demanded nurses to be present, to listen to patients, and to be compassionate. Closeness was also mutual and characterized both caregiving and receiving new insights into values in the nurses' own lives. The close relationship was at times frustrating when they were faced with situations that they could not handle and were out of their control.

Conclusion. Closeness is an important foundation for caring, and acquires a special dimension in the care of people with cancer and their relatives. It derives from the personal and professional experiences of nurses in their own life stories. Nursing education should include a reflective approach in order to develop caring skills in oncology nursing that are not merely attuned to medical care.

Most people need to be cared for at the end of their lives by professionals. This study aimed to elucidate the meaning of nurses' experiences of caring for dying persons at home and in a special unit in a hospital. Four registered nurses working in private homes and 4 registered nurses working in a specific unit in a hospital setting were interviewed. The study was planned and carried out with a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. A naive reading guided a structural analysis, which resulted in 3 main themes: meeting patients and family members as unique persons, learning in a challenging environment, and gaining personal strength. The interpreted comprehensive understanding conveyed a meaning that caring for families with a member awaiting the end of life created a situation where the presence of an inevitable death demanded nurses to create close relationships with each unique person involved.

AIM: This paper reports a study elucidating the meaning of caring for girls of the street, as experienced by female staff members working with street children in Eastern Africa. BACKGROUND: The phenomenon of children living on the streets is a global and escalating problem, and girls are presumed to be especially vulnerable. In East Africa, the traditional extended family system is rapidly breaking down and traditional gender values seem to remain. This was the context for investigating female carers' experience of caring for girls. METHOD: Interviews were conducted with 37 project staff members working with children living on the streets in the framework of non-governmental organizations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania between 1997 and 1998. Transcribed text from female interviewees (n = 13) working with girls of the street was analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. FINDINGS: The meaning of caring for girls of the street for female professional carers in East Africa was comprehensively understood as counselling the girls to integrate the past of their adverse life stories with their present identity. Counselling meant conveying visions for a possible re-direction of the life stories, from being a girl of the street into being an accepted family girl. Caring in this context meant being squeezed between ethical demands and gender values. Experiencing frustration and powerlessness was related to gender structures in society, having to fight the grip of street culture, and a lack of professional tools. Hope and satisfaction were related to success in changing the course of life stories of girls and to seeing possibilities for contributing to empowerment of girls and community members. CONCLUSIONS: Gender issues are critical to care provided to girls of the street. Carers felt that they lacked relevant knowledge and support. ical aspects and gender issues in relation to professional care for vulnerable girls ought to be addressed in nursing education and practice, not only for developing countries, but also as a matter of global interest.

People are afflicted by severe illnesses and adversities in life and they practice care privately and professionally in different cultural contexts from the view of their own life-story perspective. Five studies with a qualitative approach were linked together with the overall aim of disclosing the experience of severe illness and caring with a life-story perspective in different cultural contexts. Audio-recorded, transcribed narrative and reflective interviews were analysed with a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. Data were from 34 people living with a stroke in Sweden and Vietnam, five Vietnamese relatives and 29 professional carers caring for people with a stroke in Vietnam, with dementia in Sweden and girls living on the streets in East Africa. In this study, living with a stroke meant living with a sudden, adverse event that had interrupted the past of the life story from continuing in a similar fashion in the future. Apparently, some interviewees had not integrated the stroke event with their narrative identity and their life stories. They seemed to be confused about what had happened to them. The sensed feelings of living with a stroke in the study from Sweden were conveyed with the use of a metaphoric language. Living with a stroke in Vietnam meant feeling as a weakened thread in the family net. Caring professionally in this context meant collective narrative identity with a view of being assistants, advisers and supporters of a ‘family network’. Carers identified as good at achieving an understanding of people with dementia used maternal thinking emanating from personal experience together with knowledge about each resident’s life stories and the course of the disease. These carers used affect attunement and personal talents. The carers tuned into a resident’s affective state, noticed signs, put these into sentences and stories that corresponded with the narrative identity and the life story of the resident in the caring situation. Professional carers working among girls living on the streets in East Africa felt that they became committed to caring and had motherly feelings when they met with the girls. Caring for these girls meant fighting against the grip of street life, but also experience of satisfaction and hope. It meant experiencing powerlessness and frustration, and the carers felt squeezed between integrated values and the perceived demands from the girls in their meeting with them, whilst conveying visions to the girls of a better future. Inspired by Ricoeur’s philosophy on language and personal identity, the findings from the five papers indicate that a life-story perspective can serve as a framework for bringing human experience in various cultural contexts and different ages into comprehensible language. This perspective should be useful in professional nursing when caring for people who encounter adversities in life as an afflicted person or relative. It is suggested that a life-story perspective can serve as a framework for professional nursing care that aims at a good quality of care.