Engendering hope in the chronically and terminally ill: nursing interventions

Nurses assume a primary role in the care of chronic and terminally ill individuals in their homes and are in a strategic position to foster or hinder hope. Using a descriptive survey design, home health care nurses and hospice nurses were asked to rate proposed hope interventions as to use and effectiveness in facilitating hope in their chronically ill and terminally ill clients. One hundred and fifty-eight registered nurses, representative of six hospice agencies and six home care agencies in a Midwestern state, completed the Hope Intervention Questionnaire. Provision of comfort and pain relief emerged as the most effective and most frequently used hope interventions by both the home health care nurses and the hospice nurses. The top 15 interventions, though ranked in slightly different order, were the same for hospice nurses and the home health care nurses and were reflective of the multi-dimensions of hope. The findings of this study have practical importance to nursing practice as they provide a framework for selecting strategies to foster hope in the chronically ill and terminally ill population.