Special Feature The Struggle of the Diagnosed Terminally III

Allan for the many insights and ideas they have contrib-uted to this paper. Clinical, empirical, and subjective data are used to explore the concept of hope as it is lived by persons who are diagnosed as terminally ill. Interviews with 11 men who were in stage 2 (asymptomatic) HIV disease explicate the form that hope takes and its role in promoting health when a person must cope with a serious diagnosis. Other research and ideas about hope and dying are presented and a critique is presented of both these ideas and current nursing practice. The physical and psychological value of hope to the ill person-has been much studied and written about in nursing literature (Du