Palliative Care Staff Perspectives: The challenges of end of life care on their professional practices and everyday lives

LUXARDO NATALIA; VINDROLA PADROS CECILIA; TRIPODORO, VILMA

Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing

LWW Journals

Año: 2014 vol. 16 p. 1 - 8

This article has 3 goals: To describe the attitudes andexperiences of staff on end-of-life care treatment ofdying persons, to examine how the staff view theirterminally ill patients, and to gather professionals?opinions on how their experiences impact their dailylives. It is a qualitative research inquiry based on aconstructivist-grounded theory design. The studysubjects were professionals who were part of palliativecare services in Buenos Aires city during 2012. Apurposive sample of 30 personnel answered anopen-ended questionnaire assessing attitudes andperceptions concerning end-of-life. The results showedthe following: (a) ??Good?? deaths were consideredthose in which physical symptoms were dealt with,where the patient was surrounded or on good termswith family members, and where they were at peacewith themselves, any unfinished business, or God.??Bad?? deaths were believed to be those where thepatient was physically uncomfortable, were within aconspiracy-silence atmosphere, and died alone.(b) The factors in common that staff members identifiedregarding deaths were the need for spiritual comfort,peace, and acceptance and the need for attaining a deepconnection with others. (c) The unexpected issuesidentified among end-of-life trajectories were the varyingattitudes that patients had regarding death.(d) The personal life of the staff was affected by beingin charge of end-of-life care decision making.