Home-Visiting Nurses’ Practice for Terminal Cancer Patients Until End-of-Life Care at Home

Abstract

This study aimed to describe home-visiting nurses’ nursing care for terminal cancer patients until the patients’ end of life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, during which each nurse was asked to recall the type of care she had provided since leaving the hospital. The nurses’ narrations were descriptively analyzed and categorized. The analysis produced the following categories of nursing care, which included end-of-life care: 1) quick preparation and transition to necessary and sufficient home-based care due to the severity and urgency of terminal cancer patients’ situation; 2) provision of around-the-clock support in response to patients’ condition and anxiety; 3) intervention and continued search of treatments to alleviate patients’ pain; 4) sincere acceptance of his/her identities and him/her as one person; 5) support until eventual death; 6) orientation of patients’ family members’ roles; 7) consideration of patients’ time with family; and 8) coping with patients’ death through multidisciplinary cooperation. This survey implied that home-visiting nurses supported terminal cancer patients through end-of-life care at home by promptly and efficiently creating a good environment and supporting them continuously. In this study, we also described home-visiting nurses’ experiences coping with the situation after the patient’s death.