title: Palliative home care nursing: nurses' perceptions of roles and stress.
abstract: This exploratory study investigated perceptions of palliative home care nurses regarding their roles. Results are based on structured interviews with all ten nurses providing care in a home care program for dying patients. Most nurses agree that nursing the terminally ill is a distinctive kind of nursing, requiring particular capabilities, and providing its own unique frustrations and satisfactions. While nurses experienced stress, especially the nurses who had spent a shorter period of time working for the program, they had a variety of ways to cope with stress. Suggestions for hospice program planning and future research are presented.
mesh_terms: D000416:Alberta; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care; D012380:Role; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*