Palliative nurses' perceptions of the nature and effects of their work

This paper presents some of the qualitative findings from a recent research project, which explored the nature and effects of palliative nursing care for nurses, in New South Wales, Australia. By using story telling as the research methodology the participants related their experiences about palliative care nursing practice in which they felt they did or did not make a difference to the people in their care. The results of this project clearly demonstrated that the nature of palliative nursing is expressed by nurses dealing with death, making connections, making contracts, demonstrating advocacy, building interpersonal relationships, requiring family and colleague support and involvement in issues. The effects of palliative nursing were described as whether nurses were able to find solutions; facilitate breakthroughs, acceptance and support; reflect of their values and feelings.