Hope management: assessment and intervention in health-disease processes

Background:
This project, developed since 2014, connects research and teaching in Hope Management and assesses the impact of hope interventions on the population. The results obtained have supported nurses' clinical decisions in selecting hope-promoting interventions of individual and/or group nature. The project constitutes a strategy in response to the objectives of the global agendas: sustainable development and Laudato Si' - "Hope for the Earth and the Poor".
Finality and objectives:
Finality: Contribute to increasing the population's hope levels and to the capacity building of health professionals to manage hope in health care.
Objectives:
-Study how the concept of hope is experienced by: People / Caregivers / Health Professionals / Social Workers in contexts of health/disease and/or vulnerability (Dimension A)
-Assessing the levels and variations of hope among different population groups, and the relationship of hope to various measures of well-being (Dimension B).
-Test the effect of a TE program for parents operationalized in individual and group intervention, on the levels of hope, comfort, quality of life, and burden of parents of children with chronic disease (Dimension C).
Material and methods:
The main project has five studies associated with it, each using different methodologies: qualitative approach; complex intervention design; quasi-experimental before-and-after study; validation of nursing diagnoses; descriptive/observational methods.
Main results:
The therapy group has worked to reinforce hope in people suffering from depression and serves as a motivation to manage the implications of the illness on the lives and health of the participants. From the family caregivers' perspective, the hope intervention has contributed to reduced caregiver burden, increased comfort, and improved quality of life. The results obtained with adolescents with chronic illness prove the humorous nursing intervention to be the most effective intervention in increasing the levels of hope in this population.
Studies Associated:

A. Studies conducted by the Principal Investigator

A.1. Hope-Oriented Practice and Evidence in Pediatric Nursing (Hope2Care.PED): A Mixed Methods Study"
Type: Postdoctoral
Status: Planned
Connection to Hope2Care: This study further explores dimension B of the project, contributing to the development of tools/methodologies aligned with Hope2Care's core objectives.
A.2. Hope2Brain+: evaluating the effectiveness of a hope promoting multilevel intervention program for increasing executive functions and quality of life in children with cancer disease
Type: Project UIDP/04279/2020 (CIIS)
Status: In preparation for application in another context
Connection to Hope2Care: This study further explores dimension C of the project, contributing to the development of hope interventions aligned with Hope2Care's core objectives.

B. Team studies

B.1. Hope Barometer
Type: International Consortium
Status: In progress
Connection to Hope2Care: This study further explores dimension A of the project, contributing to understanding how people in different countries and cultures experience hope in their lives.

C. Studies by students supervised within the scope of the project

C.1. Doctoral thesis – Promoting Hope in People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Development and Evaluation of a Complex Nursing Intervention
Student: Ana Guedes
Type: Intervention
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension C

C.2. Doctoral thesis – Promoting hope in family carers of people with schizophrenia: a mixed-method action research study
Student: Ana Barbosa
Type: Intervention
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension C

C.3. Doctoral thesis – The Experience of Parental Bonding with a Critically Ill Newborn in a Neonatal Unit
Student: Débora Querido
Type: Qualitative
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

C.4. Doctoral thesis – Promoting self-management skills: development of a triadic and community-based intervention proposal for adolescents with epilepsy
Student: Marta Catarino
Type: Intervention
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension C

C.5. Doctoral thesis – Validation of the diagnosis of ‘hopelessness’ in elderly people with ‘frail elderly syndrome’ institutionalised in residential facilities
Student: Matheus Anjos
Type: Methodological
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A and B

C.6. Doctoral thesis – Promoting hope among parents of children with congenital heart disease: an appreciative action research study in the context of mutual help support
Student: Matilde Carvalho
Type: Intervention
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension C

C.6. Doctoral thesis – Uncertainty in the face of chronic illness in adolescents: Construction and validation of an instrument
Student: Mónica Conde
Type: Methodological
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension B

C.7. Doctoral thesis – Processes of hope among pregnant women following prenatal diagnosis of congenital anomalies
Student: Mónica Antunes
Type: Qualitative
Status: In progress
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

C.8. Project Doctoral thesis – Processes of hope among families and children's gender identity transition: a grounded theory
Student: Raquel Abrunhosa
Type: Qualitative
Status: Planned
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

C.9. Project Doctoral thesis – The person's lived experience of hope in a cardiac surgery intensive care unit
Student: Silvia Camacho
Type: Qualitative
Status: Planned
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

C.10. Project Doctoral thesis – The hope of the nurse - the experience of the mental health nurse
Student: Tiago Cardoso
Type: Qualitative
Status: Planned
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

C.11. Project Doctoral thesis – The experience of hope in individuals recovering from alcohol use disorder: a phenomenological study
Student: Andreia Faleiro
Type: Qualitative
Status: Planned
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

C.12. Project Doctoral thesis – Parental moral suffering: A phenomenological approach in Neonatal Care Units
Student: Célia Nunes
Type: Qualitative
Status: Planned
Dimension to Hope2Care: Dimension A

Conclusions:
Hope-promoting interventions have proven to be effective for vulnerable individuals, families, and social groups. Promoting hope is an indicator of good clinical nursing practice.