[Clarifying the nursing care and its process for patients with intractable illness].
The objective of this study was to clarify the nursing care and its process for patients with intractable illness. An inductive qualitative study was conducted by using a grounded theory approach. Subjects were seven nurses who cared patients with intractable illness at two hospitals in Japan. The qualitative data was collected by participant observations and interviews to the subjects, and analyzed by the constant comparative analysis. Results revealed four categories of nursing care and its process for patient with intractable illness. Four categories were named as "to accept his/her emotion", "to respect his/her existence", "to develop his/her potentiality", and "to support his/her autonomy". Category 1: "To accept his/her emotion" is a nursing care to make the patient express his/her emotion freely, to understand him/her, and to communicate that everyone could feel so if situated as him/her. Category 2: "To respect existence" is a nursing care to communicate the patient that the existence of him/her is respectable regardless with his/her ability or evaluation. Category 3: "To develop potentiality" is a nursing care to develop the patient's potentiality for his/her life with safety and high-quality through changing or creating the way of life. Category 4: "To support autonomy" is a nursing care to support and expand the patient's life activities through the ways of life acquired by him/her. This study also revealed some definite actions of nurses who cared for patients with intractable illness.
Kawahara
Y
Y
Japanese Red Cross College of Nursing.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009736:Nursing Process; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology