title: Providing comfort to patients in their palliative care trajectory: experiences of female nurses working in an acute setting.
abstract: This study aims to explore the lived experience of nurses who provide comfort to palliative care patients in an acute setting in a small urban hospital in the west of Ireland. A qualitative approach using Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenology was chosen for the study and data were collected using open interviewing. The main findings revealed four major themes (with sub-themes) that describe the lived experience of providing comfort to palliative care patients in an acute setting: time needed to provide comfort, emotional cost to the nurse in providing comfort, a holistic approach in the provision of comfort, and the role of education and the expert team in providing comfort. The study findings will contribute to a greater understanding of the difficulties and challenges that general non-specialized nurses in the acute setting have to understand and apply the philosophy of palliative care to patients in an acute care setting. The findings should also contribute to a broader appreciation between specialized and non-specialized nurses who are responsible for the delivery of holistic, individual person-centred care to patients requiring palliative care.
authors.affiliation: Bon Secours Hospital, Renmore, Galway, Ireland.
authors.forename: Vivian
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Roche-Fahy
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dowling
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D018939:Holistic Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009732:Nursing Care; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D010166:Palliative Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic