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The nurse as coach in care of the dying
Sanchia K Aranda
Associate Professor, Palliative Care, Centre for Palliative Care and School of Postgraduate Nursing, University of Melbourne, VIC
Judy Kelso
Project Officer, Northern Metropolitan Region, Palliative Care Forum; formally Nursing Coordinator, Melbourne City Mission Hospice Service, VIC
Abstract
Nurses' inability to articulate many aspects of their work leads to its invisibility, a problem compounded in home-based palliative care where the nurse's work is rarely seen by others. A staff development exercise was undertaken which aimed to assist specialist palliative care nurses to articulate their relationships with patients to member of the inter-disciplinary team. The process was specifically aimed at understanding patients' and families' refusals to receive psycho-social care from other team members. It explores, through four narrative vignettes, the tension between nursing and non-nursing roles when patients refuse non-nurse care. At the centre of this tension are the issues inherent in nursing roles which frequently sit at the boundaries of other health practitioners.
Keywords
nurse-patient relationship, palliative care, team, nurses' stories, gate-keeping
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