Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
including, in particular, their utilisation and views of each of the
above support services.
Two instruments were also administered with the BSQ. Firstly, the
Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG) 6 is a brief, widely used and
psychometrically robust measure of the intensity and nature of an
individual’s grief response. The scale comprises 26 items with three
subscales. Part one, which measures ‘past behaviour’, is an 8- item
measure which concerns the feelings and actions at the time of the
death, such as, the extent to which the death affected one’s
emotions, activities and relationships. Part two, ‘present feelings’, is
a 13- item measure which focuses on present feelings, such as, the
continuing emotional distress, lack of acceptance, rumination and
painful memories; part three consists of a number of unscaled items
related to facts about the death, such as, the nature of the
relationship (spouse/friend), perceived closeness to the deceased,
length of time since death, and other related facts (funeral
attendance, anniversary reactions). Only parts one and two were
used in the current study to explore any differences in grief
response between service attenders and non-attenders. Secondly,
the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith (SCSORF) 7 is a 10-item
instrument which assesses strength of religious faith irrespective of
religious denomination or affiliation, with higher scores reflecting
stronger levels of ‘religious faith’ 7. . The SCSORF was only
administered to those who were invited to attend the monthly
liturgical ceremony in order to ascertain whether attenders and nonattenders
of this service differed in their overall levels of religiosity.
One-to-one interviews were also conducted with a small sub-sample
of service attenders and non-attenders (n=22).
Analysis: The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS to
generate descriptives and to explore differences between attenders
and non-attenders. The qualitative data were transcribed and
subjected to a thematic analysis in order to identify key themes and
messages.
Key findings: A total of 246 people (47% response rate) returned
completed questionnaires, 31% (76/246) of whom had attended the
Volunteer Bereavement Support Service (VBSS).
Nearly one-quarter (35/159) of those who did not access the VBSS
were unaware of the service. Of those who reported that they knew
of the service, almost half had heard about it first prior to, or on,
the death of their relative or friend. There were mixed views about
attending the VBSS session at the hospice. Some had been to the
hospice before during the care of the relative/friend, whereas others
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