Nurses' experiences of clinical use of a quality of life instrument in palliative care.
This pilot study explored how nursing staff experienced clinical use of a quality of life (QoL) instrument as complement to their standard assessment interview. Twenty-six of 36 Registered Nurses working in one palliative care service responded in writing to six open questions.We found that nurses described positive features in using the QoL instrument related to how it supported their professional role, eased therapeutic contact with patients, and in terms of the outcomes of its use. Others noted difficulties incorporating the tool into the framework of their traditional nursing assessment, noting instrument and situation-specific limitations, with attitudes and comfort with the questionnaire affecting its use. Clinical use of QoL tools may be facilitated by emphasizing their role as a first screening assessment, and acknowledging and supporting the importance of clinical expertise and the patient-nurse relationship in further more focussed assessments and nursing care.
Hagelin
Carina Lundh
CL
Karolinska Institute Research & Development Unit, Stockholms Sjukhem Foundation, and Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Wengström
Yvonne
Y
Tishelman
Carol
C
Fürst
Carl Johan
CJ
D006801:Humans; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care; D011788:Quality of Life