Abstract
The purpose of the study was to clarify the characteristics of the support nurses provide to elderly cancer patients receiving palliative care.
We conducted a semi-structured interview survey for 15 nurses who were working in hospitals, etc., in the period from August to December 2012. In the survey, we specifically asked about "the situations wherein they were engaged with elderly cancer patients in terminal care stage." We converted the interview data into a verbatim record, and analyzed it in a qualitative and inductive manner in accordance with the procedure of content analysis.
As a result, regarding characteristics of the life of elderly cancer patients in terminal care stage undergoing medical treatment, we were able to extract 5 categories, such as "securing a place to live under medical treatment by being on the waiting list or in a short stay facility," etc. Among the categories extracted, we found many aspects reflecting the difficulties not only in the medical treatment care, but also in the social/economic fields pertaining to the elderly cancer patients. These findings highlight the current situations where the responsibilities to be borne by the nurses have been diversified, in the midst of development of the area of comprehensive care support system.
