Jag ser dig : Sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att bemöta anhöriga till döende patienter

Sammanfattning: Background: Nurses are responsible for creating a trustworthy relationship and good communication with patients as well as relatives. Swedish universities provide limited education regarding palliative care for students in the nursing program and relatives experience several deficits in nurses treatment. Relatives wish to be seen and recieve emotional support by the nurses. Aim: To describe nurses experiences of meeting relatives of dying patients Method: Systematic literature review with qualitative approach and descriptive synthesis according to Evans’ (2002) description of the analysis method. Results: The nurses experienced deficiency in their communication with relatives. The majority of challenges and difficulties described were rooted in lack of time and lack of experience and education according to the nurses. Meeting with relatives also became a challenge as the nurses had to play the role as intermediary between the patients and their families. Furthermore, the nurses became emotionally involved with the patients which led to difficulties in maintaining professionality. Conclusion: The education provided for nursing students in the current situation is insufficient in comparison with the requirements the nurses experience in the workplace. This affects not only the nurses but the relatives as well as they may be overlooked. Relatives need more of the nurses’ time to feel seen and a change in the nursing program is needed for future nurses to be prepared for the profession.