The impact of unrelieved patient suffering on palliative care nurses.

AIM

to describe the impact of unrelieved patient suffering on nurses working with palliative care patients.

DESIGN

This was a qualitative descriptive design using semi-structured interviews.

SAMPLE

nine experienced palliative care nurses were interviewed.

RESULTS

nurses acknowledged that the term 'suffering' generally was not used in the workplace. The nurses identified that only a small group of patients died with suffering that could be classified as 'unrelieved' but that the impact of these patients' suffering on themselves was enormous. Nurses describe the impact in terms of perceptions of suffering (difficult situation), feelings (helplessness, distress, feelings of failure), bearing the burden (alcohol consumption, headaches) and effects on their relationship with family. The nurses identified several factors that increased the personal impact of unrelieved patient suffering. The most important strategy for ameliorating the impact of unrelieved patient suffering was informal support from work colleagues.

CONCLUSION

the nurses' stories indicate that the personal impact of unrelieved patient suffering could be reduced through acknowledgement of this suffering and better formal and informal support mechanisms.