Abstract
The object of the present survey was to reveal the difficulties and stress experienced by the medical and paramedical staff caring for the terminally ill and their families both in medical cancer wards and in palliative care units. We sent questionnaires to 215 doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff working on the medical wards of the National Cancer Center and in the palliative care units of three general hospitals. 166 (77. 2%) of the subjects returned the questionnaires. The present paper analyzes the responses of 95 nurses in their 20's and 30's : 1. Our results indicated that 96. 8% of the nurses found it stressful to care for terminally ill cancer patients. 2. The types of stress experienced by the nurses differed between medical cancer wards where most patients are in intensive chemotherapy and palliative care units which aim at making the terminally ill as comfortable as possible. 3. Most of the nurses of the National Cancer Center found it difiicult to practice terminal care in medical cancer wards.
