UNASSIGNED: Some have hypothesized that talk about suffering can be used by clinicians to motivate difficult decisions, especially to argue for reducing treatment at the end of life. We examined how talk about suffering is related to decision-making for critically ill patients, by evaluating transcripts of conversations between clinicians and patients\' families.
UNASSIGNED: We conducted a secondary qualitative content analysis of audio-recorded family meetings from a multicenter trial conducted in the adult intensive care units of five hospitals from 2012-2017 to look at how the term \"suffering\" and its variants were used. A coding guide was developed by consensus-oriented discussion by four members of the research team. Two coders independently evaluated each transcript. We followed an inductive approach to data analysis in reviewing transcripts; findings were iteratively discussed among study authors until consensus on key themes was reached.
UNASSIGNED: Of 146 available transcripts, 34 (23%) contained the word \"suffer\" or \"suffering\" at least once, with 58 distinct uses. Clinicians contributed 62% of first uses. Among uses describing the suffering of persons, 57% (n = 24) were related to a decision, but only 42% (n = 10) of decision-relevant uses accompanied a proposal to limit treatment, and only half of treatment-limiting uses (n = 5) were initiated by clinicians. The target terms had a variety of implicit meanings, including poor prognosis, reduced functioning, pain, discomfort, low quality of life, and emotional distress. Suffering was frequently attributed to persons who were unconscious.
UNASSIGNED: Our results did not support the claim that the term \"suffering\" and its variants are used primarily by clinicians to justify limiting treatment, and the terms were not commonly used in our sample when decisions were requested. Still, when these terms were used, they were often used in a decision-relevant fashion.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is the fourth most common cause of death for the 15-29 age group. Research on the impact of suicide on parents is scarce and, therefore, poorly understood.
OBJECTIVE: To explore parents\' experiences who have lost a son or a daughter due to suicide and their experience of the services available to them.
METHODS: This phenomenological study involved 1-2 interviews with ten parents aged 40-65, seven mothers and three fathers in all 13 interviews. The age range of their sons and daughters was 17-37 years when they died.
RESULTS: For the parents, losing a son or a daughter to suicide is an overwhelming life experience characterised by Excruciating existential suffering and complicated grief where they are confronted with deep meaning-making and existential questions without answers since the person who can answer most of them is no longer alive. They, therefore, felt stuck in their grief for up to 4 years. The initial experience was an immense paralysing shock and sense of unreality. The subsequent period was a blur, and they were numb. Then, their psyche and bodies collapsed, and for a long time, they felt no grief processing was taking place. They sorely needed long-term professional trauma-informed support and felt that, in too many cases, they had to reach out for help themselves. They would have liked to see the healthcare system embrace them with more open arms, offer help and be met with information and individualised support.
CONCLUSIONS: Standard operating procedures must be installed to support suicide-bereaved parents better. Long-term professional support and trauma-focused care are required following such major trauma, and providing such support could help to reduce their adverse health impacts. Nurses and other health professionals must be better educated on existential suffering in this context.

UNASSIGNED: Exposure to suffering can lead to compassion fatigue in undergraduate nursing students.
UNASSIGNED: Guided by resilience theory, a cross-sectional, correlational design was used to investigate the potential moderating effect of positive thinking skills on the relationships between views of suffering, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction.
UNASSIGNED: In 157 undergraduate nursing students, multiple regressions revealed that views of suffering and positive thinking explained 23.8% of the variance in compassion satisfaction (F11,145 = 4.121, P < .001), and 21.9% of the variance in burnout (F11,144 = 3.786, P < .001). The Suffering God view, which stresses the presence of a compassionate deity amid suffering, and positive thinking had significant main effects on compassion satisfaction (β = 0.349, P = .025; and β = 0.309, P < .001, respectively). Positive thinking, the Suffering God view, and the Random view, in which the occurrence of suffering is random and purposeless, had significant main effects on burnout (β = -0.280, P < .001; β = -0.392, P = .014; and β = -0.206, P = .014, respectively). The Unorthodox view, in which a deity exists that allows suffering, had a significant main effect on secondary traumatic stress (β = 0.232, P = .027). Positive thinking did not moderate any of the relationships between the views of suffering and the dependent variables.
UNASSIGNED: Knowledge of these relationships can aid in the assessment of nursing students at risk for poor outcomes and guide intervention development to promote professional quality of life.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought unprecedented physical and mental health challenges to many, making the exploration of the spiritual dimension of suffering increasingly meaningful and relevant. Pope John Paul II\'s theologico-pastoral approach in Salvifici Doloris (SD) sheds light on how spiritual reflections and pastoral care anchored on the theology of Jesus Christ\'s sufferings can be put together to contribute to post-COVID-19 reflections. Given this context, this paper explores the perceptions and coping mechanisms of COVID-19 patients as they navigate the challenges of their illness. By examining patient experiences gleaned from medical and scientific journals, the study underscores the necessity of supporting individuals suffering from various diseases. As John Paul II thoughtfully remarks in Salvifici Doloris, there is a profound need to address patients\' inquiries about \"the cause, the reason, and equally, the purpose of suffering, and, in brief, a question about its meaning.\" Taking this into account, this paper contextualizes the theology of suffering articulated by Pope John Paul II in SD within the experiences of patients who contracted COVID-19 during the global pandemic. To embark on this discussion, the following themes about suffering are expounded: First, Insights into the Weight of Suffering Among Persons who Contracted COVID-19. Second, Understanding of Suffering in Salvifici Doloris, and Third, The Salvific Meaning of Suffering in COVID-19 and its Transformative Experience.

Reading violent stories or watching a war documentary are examples in which people voluntarily engage with the suffering of others whom they do not know. Using a mixed-methods approach, we investigated why people make these decisions, while also mapping the characteristics of strangers\' suffering to gain a rich understanding. In Study 1 (N = 247), participants described situations of suffering and their reasons to engage with it. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we developed a typology of the stranger (who), the situation (what), the source (how), and the reason(s) for engaging with the situation (why). We categorised the motives into four overarching themes - epistemic, eudaimonic, social, and affective - reflecting diversity in the perceived functionality of engaging with a stranger\'s suffering. Next, we tested the robustness of the identified motives in a quantitative study. In Study 2, participants (N = 250) recalled a situation in which they engaged with the suffering of a stranger and indicated their endorsement with a variety of possible motives. Largely mirroring Study 1, Study 2 participants engaged to acquire knowledge, for personal and social utility, and to feel positive and negative emotions. We discuss implications for understanding the exploration of human suffering as a motivated phenomenon.

UNASSIGNED: Stress-related ill-health like pain and exhaustion are demanding public health problems in Europe. In Sweden, women are particularly at risk to develop stress-related ill-health during a period in life that coincides with child-rearing years. When entering motherhood, Swedish women\'s sick leave substantially increases. Yet, motherhood is rarely acknowledged in clinical encounters concerning pain and exhaustion although women suffer from these ailments more often than men. To incorporate motherhood as an existential dimension of health in the care of women living with pain and exhaustion might alleviate women\'s suffering. But knowledge on women\'s experiences of motherhood and health is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the study is to reach a deeper understanding of how women suffering from long-lasting pain and exhaustion experience their health in relation to motherhood.
UNASSIGNED: Ricoeur\'s interpretation theory has been applied to analyze 27 phenomenological interviews with 14 mothers suffering from long-lasting pain and exhaustion.
UNASSIGNED: These women\'s experiences shed light on how closely motherhood is interwoven with the experience of their health and suffering: The women\'s suffering seems to be rooted in a relational vulnerability that has been uncovered during motherhood. Further, the women suffer from a burden of difficult life experiences and inner conflicts. Reconciliation with life is possible when women find an existential shelter, which offers ways to relate to their suffering making the own suffering more bearable.

The recognition of animals as sentient beings has raised societal awareness of the welfare of farmed animals. This has been instrumental in increasing the legislative pressure towards welfare-conscious farming practices and, more lately, greater consumer demand for ethically sourced products. Besides, improved animal welfare is a key driver for enhanced performance, particularly in breeding boars, as welfare conditions strongly influence reproductive outcomes. The stressors associated with confinement impact testicular physiology and semen quality and the efforts to improve the welfare of breeding boars have so far focused on mitigating the negative consequences associated with stressors. The Five Freedoms framework and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)\'s \'welfare consequences\' approach prioritise the alleviation of suffering. In breeding boars, key welfare negative consequences include movement restriction, isolation stress, inability to engage in exploratory behaviours, locomotory disorders, and prolonged hunger. The negative consequences, which can be mitigated by improved housing and management practices, should be tackled in any commitment to improve the welfare of breeding boars. Animal welfare science, however, has recently shifted towards cultivating positive welfare experiences and a life worth living, beyond just alleviating suffering. The Five Domain Model systematically evaluates animal welfare, considering both negative and positive aspects. Encouraging positive welfare states involves facilitating species-specific behaviours, such as exploration and play, and fostering positive human-animal interactions. In breeding boars, strategies promoting positive welfare include providing enriching environments, encouraging exploration, and cultivating positive interactions with caretakers. Thus, for an overall welfare improvement of breeding boars, not only should the absence of suffering be guaranteed, but also the promotion of positive experiences that make their lifes worth living.

From a hermeneutic interpretation, this article analyzed the new psychic pandemic configuring a typology of psychopolitical man, provided by digital swarms and mass psychology, that, from logotherapy, can be perceived as a postmodern collective neurosis. We also analyze a self\'s hyper-reflection as a social phenomenon of psychopolitics, suffering as repression, and the love of narcissistic consumption. Consolidating a sense of life as a social ethos is the answer to finding compromises and responsibility for the individual mission that every human being has as a member of a community and society.
En este ensayo se abordó la nueva pandemia psíquica desde una interpretación hermenéutica. Esta pandemia configura una tipología de persona psicopolítica, dada por enjambres digitales y una psicología de masas que, desde la logoterapia, se puede percibir como neurosis colectivas postmodernas. También se puede analizar como fenómenos sociales de la psicopolítica. Esta es una hiperreflexión del propio yo, el sufrimiento como represión y el amor de consumo narcisista. El consolidar un sentido de vida como ethos social, es la respuesta para hallar compromisos y responsabilidad ante la misión personal que tiene cada ser humano como miembro de una comunidad y sociedad.

BACKGROUND: Does experiencing adversity engender kindness, and if so, for whom? Two studies tested the hypothesis that adversity predicts increased pro-social outcomes, and that this relationship is strongest for individuals who view others as good and trustworthy, or benevolent.
METHODS: In Study 1, a cross-sectional survey design was utilized, and in Study 2 a longitudinal survey was conducted.
RESULTS: In Study 1 (N = 359), the number of lifetime adverse life events was associated with increased volunteering, empathic concern, and self-reported altruism. The association of adversity and altruism was stronger for those with greater benevolence beliefs. In Study 2 (N = 1157), benevolence beliefs were assessed, and in subsequent years, adverse life events were reported. The number of past-year adverse life events predicted more volunteering and charitable involvement, but only among people with high benevolence beliefs.
CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to adversity may be associated with increased pro-social behavior among those with higher benevolence beliefs. In part, this could be due to benevolence beliefs increasing the expectation that one\'s efforts will be appreciated and reciprocated.

Control methods are applied worldwide to reduce predation on livestock by European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Lethal methods can inflict suffering; however, moral debate about their use is lacking. Non-lethal methods can also inflict suffering and can unintentionally lead to death, and yet both the welfare consequences and ethical perspectives regarding their use are rarely discussed. The aim of this study was to investigate the animal welfare consequences, the level of humaneness, the ethical considerations and the moral implications of the global use of fox control methods according to Tom Regan\'s animal rights view and Peter Singer\'s utilitarian view. According to Regan, foxes ought not to be controlled by either lethal or potentially harmful non-lethal methods because this violates the right of foxes not to be harmed or killed. According to Singer, if an action maximises happiness or the satisfaction of preferences over unhappiness or suffering, then the action is justified. Therefore, if and only if the use of fox control methods can prevent suffering and death in livestock in a manner that outweighs comparable suffering and death in foxes is one morally obligated to use them. It is clear that lethal fox control methods and some non-lethal methods are inhumane.