Five Nurses' Experiences of Hospice Care in a Long-Term Perspective

In this study, five nurses' experiences of regularly having to face the incurable illness and death of dying patients were explored. Qualitative interviews were conducted on two occasions, with an interval of 11 years. An interpretive method was used to discern the nurses' thoughts, feelings, and attitudes over the years toward death and dying. The main finding was that working in hospice care and facing the dying and death of many patients had an impact on daily work and private life. Narrations from the first occasion were conceptualized as the theme "death as an agent of change." Eleven years later, the presence of death took a less dominant place in the nurses' lives and the theme became "death as a companion in life." In the long term, nurses emphasized that their professional and personal growth was fostered by their relationship with the dying patients.