Premium
Nurses’ perceptions of patients’ feelings about breast surgery
Author(s) -
Crockford E A,
Holloway I M,
Walker J M
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1993.18111710.x
Subject(s) - feeling , grounded theory , medicine , qualitative research , perception , nursing , duty , breast surgery , psychology , breast cancer , social psychology , social science , philosophy , theology , cancer , neuroscience , sociology
This qualitative study was designed to gain insight into nurses’ perceptions of patients’ feelings and needs with specific reference to breast surgery A grounded theory approach was adopted, based on in‐depth, unstructured interviews with eight trained nurses working on surgical wards in a district general hospital It emerged that the informants believed breast surgery patients to be very vulnerable and to be suffering from extreme stress and trauma Patients were thought to lack knowledge regarding their treatment and condition The nurses thought it to be their moral and professional duty to act as advocates for the patient and the family Imposed restrictions on their advocacy role were found to cause a sense of frustration and powerlessness which appeared to be compounded by the nurses’ perceived lack of counselling skills and the absence of a readily available counsellor or specialist nurse Recommendations for improvements in the care of patients undergoing breast surgery are based upon these findings