What is it about?

The paper explores how hospice-at-home nurses’ experience caring for dying patients and the impact of this on their working (and personal) life. Interviews with hospice-at-home nurses uncovered their coping mechanisms in working in an intense, complex, unpredictable and sometimes ethically unclear environment. It makes recommendations on how their working environment can be improved.

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Why is it important?

There is an increasing ageing population and many people prefer to die at home. Therefore the demand for hospice-at-home nurses is increasing and the retention of existing hospice-at-home nurses is vital.

Perspectives

I worked in an inpatient palliative care unit at a hospice for many years prior to joining their hospice-at-home team. This move highlighted the huge challenges hospice-at-home nurses face daily, that are largely unappreciated by their inpatient palliative care unit colleagues and some managers. I wanted to find out how the hospice-at-home nurses coped with these challenges, and what enabled them to remain in their job.

Catherine Jameson
University of Chichester

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Hospice-at-home nurses' experiences of caring for patients, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, February 2021, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/ijpn.2021.27.1.30.
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