La comunicación enfermera con el paciente oncológico terminal

Résumé

Aims: Describe nurse-terminal cancer patient communication. Determine how demographic and labor factors influence this communication. Know the patient's opinion regarding nurse communication. Methodology: Descriptive observation and qualitative study by means of a focus group. The study population was made up by all the professional nurses working with terminal cancer patients in Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital in Huelva, including the plant of Hematology & Oncology (referred to by its Spanish acronym PHO) in Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital, the unit of Palliative Care (referred to by its Spanish acronym UCP) in Vázquez Díaz Hospital, and 5 cancer patients. In order to measure communication skills, a self-administered, structured, Likert-scaled questionnaire was used after being adapted from Randall Hidalgo's. Patient feedback was obtained from a focus group. The statistical analysis was carried out with the software SPSS-PC version 17. Qualitative data are expressed as frequencies (percentages), and quantitative data are reported as means and standard deviation (SD).In order to compare the means, the t-test for independent samples was performed. As for the comparison of qualitative variables, the chi-square test was used. In all cases, application conditions were checked. Literal translation of results from focus group. Results: 14.29% of nurses used active listening as a patient communication tool, 45.29% of nurses used empathy and 38.10% used efficient expressions. A significant relationship was found between communication (p≤0.05) and work place, work contract type, training, nursing record, age and experience. The most notable result of focus group was that not all of the patients agreed that nurses introduced themselves and greeted the patients. All of them agreed that nurses listened to the patients, showed emotions and provided explicative answers. Discussion: Nurses showed acceptable communication skills .A statistically significant relationship was found between communication and work place, work contract type, training, nursing record, age and experience. Patients thought that nurse communication is adequate.