Nurses' experiences of palliative care for children dying from terminal illness

Abstract

Death of a child is not only devastating to the parents, but it also places emotional strain, physical distress and feeling of burnout in nurses caring for children who are terminally ill and are receiving palliative care. Pediatric palliative care nursing is an extremely sensitive specialty in nursing, therefore studying about the experiences of nurses providing palliative care for children dying from terminal illness will provide information about what this area of nursing entails from the nurses’ perspective. The aim of this study is to synthesis current information from different research on the experiences of nurses providing palliative care to children dying from terminal illness. The study was done utilizing literature review method, and data were retrieved from CINAHL and ProQuest databases. Eight articles were reviewed, then analyzed utilizing the content analysis approach. Four themes were identified: Emotional burden, Boundaries, Preservation of self and Lack of support system. The review demonstrated that, nurses experience tremendous emotional burden, had challenges maintain healthy professional boundaries as some nurses became attached to the child thereby making themselves more vulnerable to the grief surrounding child palliative care, also nurses have adapted ways to preserve themselves in the job. However, this adapted coping mechanism came from their experience not that they received prior education and training, therefor there is still need for additional training for nurses especially on psychological aspects about how to care for these kinds of children and their families. The results also suggest the need for further studies on the long-term mental health implication on nurses who provide pediatric palliative care