ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Nursing students develop their professional "self" through clinical placement experiences. Aesthetic expression can be used as a means to reflect students' personal knowing and to convey self as nurtured during their clinical journey. In a postconference session of the Basic Nursing Care Practicum course, six students were asked to draw pictures reflecting their clinical experience and then share their stories. It appeared that nursing students learned the meaning of nursing and caring, and through these meanings, their actual self as nurses was also developed.
ABSTRACT
In China, the development of palliative care is challenging because of limited available resources and rapidly increasing demands. The nurses' competence is a significant element in providing high-quality palliative care. This cross-sectional study aimed to describe the palliative care competence among oncology nurses and to examine the relationships between it and palliative care knowledge, attitudes, and workplace learning conditions. A total of 220 nurses with more than 6 months of experience and who worked in inpatient wards were invited to participate in this study. Four questionnaires were administered to collect data-the Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses, the Attitudes Toward Palliative Care Scale, the Workplace Learning Conditions scale, and the Palliative Care Nursing Self-competence Scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations. The moderate level of competence was reported by 212 participants (response rate, 96.36%). The scores were lower in the aspects of competence such as spiritual care and ethical and legal issues. Competence was positively related to workplace learning conditions and knowledge but not attitudes. The results highlighted the necessity of improving the palliative care competence among oncology nurses. The optimization of learning conditions in the hospital is recommended to be a vital force in strengthening competence.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Clinical Competence/standards , Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing/standards , Adult , China , Clinical Competence/statistics & numerical data , Correlation of Data , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing/methods , Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Cancer is a leading cause of death in Thailand; however, little research is available that describes the end-of-life experiences of cancer patients. Data presented here are part of a descriptive qualitative study that investigated dying experiences in patients with advanced cancer. Two core themes were identified-living with suffering and moving beyond suffering. In this publication, we focus on 1 of the core themes: moving beyond suffering. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore how Thai persons with advanced cancer move beyond suffering at the end of their life. METHODS: A series of interviews and observations were conducted on 15 patients with terminal advanced cancer. The informants were followed through from the point of referral at the hospital to their death at home or in hospital. An inductive qualitative analysis was applied. RESULTS: Thai persons with advanced cancer tried to find ways to go on living with suffering. Three themes emerged from the interview data: adopting religious doctrine, being hopeful, and being surrounded by the love and care of the family. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the roles of religious faith and spirituality in helping Thai patients transcend suffering and move on toward their end of life. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurses need to be sensitive toward the religious faiths of their patients and provide culturally appropriate care for them. Nursing interventions to maintain hope and connectedness should be promoted by respecting the patients' expressions of hope and supporting the involvement of family members in end-of-life care.
Subject(s)
Asian People/psychology , Attitude to Death/ethnology , Neoplasms/ethnology , Neoplasms/psychology , Spirituality , Terminally Ill/psychology , Adaptation, Psychological , Aged , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasms/nursing , Nurse-Patient Relations , Oncology Nursing/methods , Qualitative Research , Religion , Taiwan , Terminal Care/organization & administrationABSTRACT
Cancer is a leading cause of death in Thailand. Thai cancer patients often seek medical treatment while in advanced stages of the disease. This longitudinal qualitative study aimed to describe the suffering that patients with terminal advanced cancer experience in their everyday life. A series of interviews were conducted and patient observation performed with 15 patients with terminal advanced cancer. Thematic analysis was applied and the overriding theme of the end-of-life experiences was living with suffering. Five inter-related sub-themes regarding the experience of suffering were identified in the informants' accounts, including physical symptom distress, feeling of alienation, sense of worthlessness, sense of burden to others, and desire for hastened death. The findings of this study can be of value for health professionals in cancer care in Thailand. Comprehensive end-of-life care programmes are needed to alleviate suffering in this group of patients.
