[Burdens and resources of nurses working in the specialist palliative care: an explorative cross-sectional study]

Burdens and resources of nurses working in the specialist palliative care: an explorative cross-sectional study Abstract. Background: For Germany, there are no studies so far which compare the burdens and the resources of nurses working in the specialized palliative care settings.

The aim of this study was to analyse and compare burdens and resources of nurses working in palliative care wards, inpatient hospices and in specialized outpatient palliative care services.

In 2015, nurses from the referred settings in Rhineland-Palatinate were invited to complete a self-developed questionnaire on burdens and resources. Contingency tables, Kruskal-Wallis tests and regressions were calculated.

149 nurses (response rate: 34.5 %) participated in the survey. Nurses working in palliative care wards indicated higher values in all types of burdens than nurses working in hospices and specialized outpatient palliative care. Nurses in palliative care wards and hospices reported emotional burdens as the most stressful factor, while nurses working in specialized outpatient care services expressed the highest levels of burdens in patient-related areas. An association between the experienced amount of burdens and having acquired an additional qualification in palliative care was determined (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) for burden due to organizational conditions: 2.56, CI: 1.06 - 6.19; aOR for burden due to support for family members: 2.99, CI: 1.06 - 8.46). The three settings in our study differ in terms of the availability of the resources family, group supervision and additional qualifications.

This study provides an insight into the burdens and the resources of nurses working in palliative care wards, hospices and specialized outpatient palliative care services in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Future preventative measures should be tailored to the respective settings.