Death Confrontation, Spiritual-Existential Experience and Caring Attitudes in Palliative Care Nurses: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

The present qualitative study aims to (a) better understand how palliative care nurses handle death proximity; (b) describe their subjective spiritual-existential experience; and (c) explore the potential links between death confrontation and spiritual-existential experience in nurses. Eleven pallia...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inQualitative research in psychology Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 151 - 172
Main Authors Vachon, Mélanie, Fillion, Lise, Achille, Marie
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Taylor & Francis Group 01.04.2012
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
death confrontation
Heidegger's ontology
Hospice care
interpretative phenomenological analysis
intersubjective regulation
Nurses
Nursing care
Palliative care
Qualitative research
spiritual-existential experience
Studies
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Summary:The present qualitative study aims to (a) better understand how palliative care nurses handle death proximity; (b) describe their subjective spiritual-existential experience; and (c) explore the potential links between death confrontation and spiritual-existential experience in nurses. Eleven palliative care nurses participated in a semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The first level analysis allowed for a description of the emerging themes of nurses' experience of death confrontation, spiritual-existential experience, and caring attitudes. The second level analysis allowed for the emergence of a typology, identifying a higher meaning for the nurses' mechanisms of subjective regulation of death proximity, integrating death, fighting death, and suffering death. Results were interpreted within a humanist-existential perspective.
ISSN:1478-0887
1478-0895
DOI:10.1080/14780881003663424