Cancer Unit Nurses’ End-of-Life Care-Related Stress, Under standing and Training Needs

Purpose: This study was performed to identify the level of stress perceived by nurses who attend dying patients in the cancer care unit; their understanding regarding end-of-life care and related training needs. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 151 nurses stationed at the cancer care units of four general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province in Korea. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires and the response rate was 96%. The data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation analysis. SPSS 12.0 was used for data analysis. Results: Nurses experienced a high level of stress in the end-of-life care settings. Their understanding of end-of-life care was above the mid-point of the scale while their training needs for end-of-life care was relatively high. The more experienced the nurses were, the more stressed they were, particularly due to excessive workload. Nurses who served longer in the cancer unit tended to show greater needs for end-of-life care training. Conclusion: This study found nurses perform end-of-life care with a high level of stress but with insufficient understanding, and thus, showed great needs for related training. Such findings can be useful to develop an end-of-life care training program for nurses.