title: Palliative care. The nurse's role in helping families through the transition of "fading away".
abstract: Oncology nurses are finding themselves increasingly involved in providing palliative care. A foundational tenet of palliative care is that the entire family, not just the patient, is the unit of care. Although nursing literature on care of the family is growing, nursing approaches tend to be described in general terms. A recent study of families caring for a member with advanced cancer generated a theoretic scheme which indicated that the families' experience could be conceptualized as a transition: the transition of fading away. This theoretic scheme served as the foundation for identifying nursing approaches which could be helpful to families engaged in the transition. This paper expands on the nursing approaches so that nurses may be better prepared to help families through the transition of fading away.
authors.affiliation: Vancouver Health Department, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Reimer
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Martens
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001293:Attitude to Death; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009859:Oncology Nursing; D010166:Palliative Care; D011368:Professional-Family Relations