The LENS study - Lived Experience of Palliative Care NurseS’ [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The lived experience of qualified nurses working within an Academic Specialist Palliative Care Unit within the acute care setting: a phenomenological study.
IRAS ID
271190
Contact name
Stephen Mason
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Liverpool
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 14 days
Research summary
Research Summary
This study will provide an in-depth understanding of the lived experience of nurses working in a hospital palliative care unit. It will examine how nurses apply meaning to their role and how meanings may impact upon their psychological well-being.\n \nIndividuals approaching the end of their life benefit from support by Palliative Care (PC) services. Working in PC presents both clinical and personal challenges, often requiring professionals to make difficult clinical and ethical decisions, alongside supporting patients, families and other staff. The increasing demand for PC provision within the NHS may produce additional stresses for staff. For example, reduced time with patients and families, more complex health conditions and differing disease profiles. The effect of these additional stressors may result in increased stress, burnout and compassion fatigue. Recently, the World Health Organisation has called for increased examination of the impact of work-related stress, identifying it as a major public health concern. Alongside the current COVID-19 pandemic it is important to make sure that we are able to understand the lived experiences of nurses at this current time and the impact this has on nurses working in palliative care. Research studies within this area have focused on cancer or hospice settings. There is a gap in our understanding on the provision of PC within the hospital setting (where the focus of care is different care, not cure), staff/patient ratios are different, and patient symptomology is likely to be significantly more complex and challenging. Research is needed to explore nurses lived experience of working within a PC unit in the hospital setting. The data and analysis will provide an in-depth understanding of the ‘lived experience’ of qualified nurses and the meanings that they attribute to the care they provide.
Summary of Results
Overall, the findings of this study have provided insight into the pressures that staff experience when working in an academic palliative care unit. Nurses try to overcome the lack of control they experience by trying to exert control over what they can, which is their role and responsibilities. Due to the extra pressure and stress this caused, alongside the culture on the unit of emotion being a sign of weakness, nurses felt unable to express their emotion through the fear of rejection from others and through the fear of being viewed as weak. This provided insight into the social norms and culture within this setting and the limited power nurses felt they had to challenge the status quo.
REC name
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REC reference
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