Psycho-emotional recovery, the meaning of care in the process of providing palliative care to Iranian people with cancer: A grounded theory study.
Mir Hossein Aghaei, Zohreh Vanaki, Eesa Mohammadi
PMID 36065567WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses and palliative care teams described trying to reduce cancer patients' anxiety through bedside presence, respecting beliefs, offering real hope, and explaining care.
Patients reported inner peace but also feeling a burden; providers described distress.
Key findings
01Participants described the main palliative care concern as reducing patients' affliction and anxiety, and named three strategies: emotional connection, core value in care, and positive mindset.
02Shared language and culture and cooperation among providers were described as helping the strategies; high workload and too few staff were described as disrupting them.
03Patients reported inner peace, while some also felt a burden to families and providers reported psychological distress.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 21 people were interviewed, including just one psychologist, one spiritual counsellor and one social assistant, so some professions are thinly represented. The study was done in Tehran palliative care centres and charitable institutions, so the themes may not transfer to other settings or countries. It is a qualitative grounded theory study, so it reports participants' experiences and ideas, not measured patient outcomes or tested interventions. The main participants were nurses with palliative care experience, which may shape what was reported about care delivery.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest relevant to the article. The supplied text does not state a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that these strategies were shown to reduce anxiety or improve palliative care outcomes. The study reports themes from 21 interviews with nurses, patients, families and other providers, not measured results from a tested intervention.