Community nurses’ descriptions of stress when caring in the home

Nurses often experience both positive and negative dimensions of caring for dying clients and their families. This project used descriptions of the lived experience of 21 community (district) nurses, from the Wentworth Area Health Service in Sydney, Australia, to determine the stressors involved in caring for palliative care clients at home. Data was collected using an open ended questionnaire and semi-structured audiotaped interviews. Sources of stress for the nurses were poor family dynamics, the family wanting the nurse to be part of the family unit, workloads, and others’ expectations. Another dominant stressor was the family and/or client’s denial of the possibility of no cure. This often conflicted with the nurses’ expectation of good dying as accepting and peaceful. The nurses coped with their stress by developing a support network, talking about their stress and sharing experiences in groups at work, the latter having important implications for employers.