Att ge palliativ omvårdnad till äldre personer vid livets slut inom kommunal hemsjukvård i ordinärt boende : sjuksköterskors upplevelser

Sammanfattning: Background: The need of nurses who can perform high quality palliative care for people at the end of life in municipal home care in ordinary living is expected to increase, as people live longer and wish to die in ordinary living. In palliative care at the end of life, the endeavor is to alleviate suffering, improve the quality of life and contribute to a good death for people with incurable diseases. Palliative care also requires that nurses can practice a person-centered approach. A study of nurses' experiences of providing palliative care in municipal home care is important for examining the conditions that nurses have for being able to perform person-centered nursing to elderly people at the end of their lives. Purpose: To investigate how nurses in municipal home care experience the work of providing palliative care to elderly people at the end of life in municipal home care in ordinary living. Method: Nineteen nurses in two Swedish municipalities were individually interviewed and data was analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Results: The result from the interview study consists of an overall theme: Palliative care at the end of life is experienced with mixed emotions that both create value and challenge for nurses. The overall theme summarizes the content of the categories: Meaningfulness in palliative care at the end of life, Security in palliative care at the end of life and Frustration in palliative care at the end of life. The nurses experienced their work as both challenging and valuable. The nurses mostly experienced meaningfulness and sense of safety at work, but sometimes they lacked the prerequisites to perform good quality palliative care, which was frustrating. Conclusion: Nurses' experiences of working with palliative care at the end of live in municipal home care need to be made visible in order to create a greater understanding of the nurses' situation. The results of the interview study can be used to create better conditions for nurses working with palliative care. The organization and management have an important role in providing the necessary conditions that create a safe and comfortable working environment for nurses that contributes to increase the quality of palliative care performed in municipal home care.