From powerlessness to recognition the meaning of palliative care clinicians’ experience of suffering

ABSTRACT

Palliative care (PC) clinicians work alongside people who are at the end of their lives. These patients face death and suffering, which may also cause significant suffering for the PC clinicians themselves. Previous studies suggest that a significant number of PC professionals suffer from compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout. However, very few studies have attempted to better understand the meaning of PC clinicians’ lived experience of suffering in its complexity and intricacy. Drawing upon Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study aimed to explore the PC clinicians’ experience of suffering from a phenomenological and existential perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-one specialized PC clinicians who were all part of the same multidisciplinary team. Interviews were analysed using IPA. The three emerging essential themes describing the meaning of clinicians’ suffering were 1) Suffering as powerlessness; 2) suffering as non-recognition and 3) easing suffering: the promise of recognition. Result interpretation was based on Paul Ricoeur’s existential phenomenology of suffering and recognition. The conclusion calls for support initiatives and interventions aimed at promoting recognition among PC clinicians on personal, professional, and institutional levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Palliative care clinicians
• palliative care professionals
• burnout
• suffering
• powerlessness
• recognition
• interpretative phenomenological analysis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

We would like to thank the MUCH Palliative Care team for their collaboration.

Disclosure statement

The author has no competing financial interests to declare.

Notes

1. Occasionally, participant statements are slightly modified to facilitate reading. For instance, we did not included verbal tics or stuttering.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mélanie Vachon

Mélanie Vachon is a professor in psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal, with special interest and expertise in end of life and palliative care. Her research methodologies include participatory and creative approaches.

Alexandra Guité-Verret

Alexandra Guité-Verret is a PhD student in psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal, with special interest in cancer. Her qualitative reserach methodologies include the use of metaphores in meanking making.