Nurses' experiences of providing sensitive nursing care for terminally-ill individuals with cancer: A qualitative study

Purpose: To explore the sensitive nursing care provided by nurses who care for terminally-ill individuals with cancer. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted using Colaizzi's phenomenological approach. Participants were 16 hospice specialists and four non-specialist nurses with experience in caring for terminal cancer patients in hospice specialized institutions in South Korea. Results: Eight theme clusters were drawn from the data and these clusters had two dimensions consisting of sensitive attitudes and sensitive nursing behaviors. The sensitive attitudes included reflecting on past experiences, developing an accepting attitude toward death, using intuition to address critical situations, and having an open mind regarding collaborating with colleagues. The sensitive nursing behaviors contained listening to patients' needs, responding to patients in a manner suitable to their conditions, quickly responding to patients' problem, and providing a moment saying farewell. Conclusions: Teamwork and role models can help hospice specialists and non-specialist nurses caring for terminally-ill individuals with cancer to improve the sensitive nursing care. The sensitive attitudes and behaviors can be used as basic data for training programs designed to enhance nurses' sensitivity.