Experiences and Practices of Nurses Providing Palliative and End-of-Life Care to Oncology Patients: A Phenomenological Study

AIM: The objective of this study was to describe the experiences and practices of nurses who provide palliative and end-of-life care to oncology patients, to determine the difficulties they encounter in this regard, and to determine how they cope with it.

METHOD: Data were collected between December 10 and 27, 2022, at a hospital’s palliative care clinic. The descriptive phenomenological approach, which is a qualitative research method, was used in this study. The sample of the study consisted of 12 nurses who provided palliative and end-of-life care to oncology patients in a city hospital. The research data were collected with the nurse descriptive form and a semi-structured interview form. Descriptive statistics and the thematic content analysis method were used in the analysis of the data.

RESULTS: The themes that emerged as a result of the interviews with nurses who provided palliative and end-of-life care to oncology patients in palliative units were “various learning experiences,” “responsibilities in caregiving,” “nursing care practices,” “personal motivation sources for nurses,” “difficulties,” and “experience in coping with difficulties.”

CONCLUSION: In this study, it was determined that nurses who provide palliative and end-of-life care to oncology patients are exposed to some difficulties as a result of their professional experience, that, in addition, they had various learning experiences, and that their coping skills were team cohesion and training. In line with the results of the study, it is recommended to structure palliative in-service training after graduation, to arrange for palliative care centers, and to consider the problems experienced in determining the needs.

Cite this article as: Durmuş Sarıkahya, S., Gelin, D., Çınar Özbay, S., & Kanbay, Y. (2023). Experiences and practices of nurses providing palliative and end-of-life care to oncology patients: A phenomenological study. Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 31(S1), 22-30.