Abstract
Professional nurses encounter unique challenges in caring for terminally ill patients. Assisting patients to achieve an «appropriate death» requires communications skills. The quality of the communication between nurses and patients greatly influences the quality of care which patients receive. The purpose of this study was to describe nurses' experiences in their communication with dying patients. Interview responses and narratives of twelve geriatric nurses were analysed. The result showed that these nurses had both positive and negative experiences. Characteristics of nurses, patients, relatives and the features of the environment and organisation contributed to communicational difficulties or made it easier for the nurse. The contents and expression of the communication also influenced the nurses' experiences. These parts of the result will here be presented. The study also showed the nurses' thoughts and feelings of the communication today, needs they had to be able to manage and what they had learnt from their experiences (1).
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