Nursing and the Terminally Ill: Beliefs, Attitudes, and Perceptions of Practitioners

Abstract

When care of the terminally ill takes place in a hospice, rather than in an acute-care setting, there is a shift in overall care from the medical staff to supportive nursing care. To better understand nurses' perceptions about providing care for the terminally ill, an investigation into the salient beliefs about providing nursing care for the terminally ill was undertaken with 97 nurses practicing in a midwestern metropolitan area. For the total sample, 13 of the 20 beliefs identified from a literature review were found to be salient. A salient belief was identified as an accurate statement by the nurses participating in the study. The 13 beliefs were analyzed according to six practice settings: adult intensive care, cardiology intensive care, pediatric intensive care, oncology, psychiatric, and hospice.