A qualitative study on the experience of hospice nurses in grief counseling for the parents of end-stage children
LI Xiaoyan
KONG Xiangjing
XU Xinyi
Abstract：Objective To better understand the psychological process and nursing experience of hospice nurses when providing grief counseling to parents of end-stage children.Methods Using purposive sampling,15 hospice nurses were selected from two tertiary hospitals and one community hospital in Nanjing from February to June 2021.Semi-structured interviews were conducted,and the data were analyzed by Colaizzi's seven steps method to extract content relevant to the themes.Results The experience of hospice nurses providing grief counseling to parents of end-stage children were summarized into the following five themes:appropriate grief counseling by nurses helps relieve negative emotions of parent and reduces the nurse's stress,differences in parents'attitudes toward grief counseling increase the workload and psychological burden of nurses,experiencing various of emotional disorders,benefit from their roles,and the desire for peer support among parents of end-stage children.Conclusions Through the public education on grief counseling,popularizing the concept of hospice care,addressing the emotional experiences of hospice care nurses's enhancing their professional recognition and sense of belonging,and developing peer support among parents of end-stage children,these measures can help to prevent emotional disorders in hospice nurses,improve care for terminally ill children,and promote the development of grief counseling for their parents.
Keywords：Hospice careEnd-stage childrenGrief counselingQualitative study
Publication Date：2024-09-20
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 375-379 )