Oncological paliative care and its psychic influences in the perception of nurses

Abstract

Objective: understand what the main psychic influences of palliative oncological care
are on the perception of nurses are. Method: the research is descriptive exploratory,
with qualitative approach. The eligible research field was the inpatient sector of a
hospital unit specialized in palliative care. This unit belongs to a national referral
center for cancer treatment, located in the Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Data collection
occurred from a semi-structured interview and the study universe consisted of
18 nurses. The collected data were analyzed with QualiQuantiSoft (based on the
collective subject discourse theory). Results: two of the collective subject discourses
(CSD) emerged with their central ideas: CSD1 - "negative influence from palliative
oncological care on nurses’ “perception” of nurses and CSD2 - "positive influence from
palliative oncological attention on nurses' perception". Conclusion: the influence of
work on nurses' behavior is evident, being in some moments a source of pleasure
and, in others, a source of suffering. We found that conflicts in the multidisciplinary
team, organizational conflicts and physical exhaustion were the categories with the
greatest impact on psychological distress. In view of the characteristics described by
nurses in the voice of the CSD, it is necessary to develop an intervention practice in
order to minimize the psychological distress of nurses in palliative oncological care.