Nursing in a hospital-based hospice unit.
The purpose of this ethnographic study was to describe and analyze the ways in which registered nurses interacted with those terminally ill and acutely ill patients typical of a hospital-based hospice unit. Participant observation and informal interviews were used to collect data. Field notes were analyzed systematically using a constant comparative method of qualitative analysis. Data analysis revealed that patients' responsiveness rather than "acute," or "terminal" labels determined the quality of the nurses' interactions with them. Humanistic caring was found to be the unifying focus of care for both acutely ill and terminally ill patients.
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Samarel
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D006738:Hospices; D006757:Hospital Units; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009732:Nursing Care; D013727:Terminal Care