Background

About 56.8 million people receive palliative care each year and wanting care at home is common. The patient needs to receive good palliative care and the nurse can relieve suffering through giving the patient attention to needs and wishes. To make this possible, the nurse must work with a person-centered care and have the patient's best interests in mind. Therefore, it is important that nurses have knowledge of patients' experiences of receiving palliative care at home.

Aim

The aim was to describe patients experience of receiving palliative care at home.

Method

This study was a literature-based study where qualitative articles have been analyzed to describe patients experiences. Articles were searched in CINAHL and PubMed, and after the authors analyzed the articles according to Friberg's 5-step model, 10 articles where selected for the results.

Results

The analysis of the articles resulted in three main themes: the importance of the home, the importance of a good care relationship and the importance of maintaining one's social interactions. Eight sub-themes were identified: family creates meaningfulness, memories in the home create well-being, the home becomes a place of disease, the opportunity for round-the clock care, be seen as a person instead of an illness, caring nurse has the right skills, get to keep your pet, socializing with friends.

Conclusion

Patients experience of palliative care is an important knowledge that all nurses need to have in order to provide good care.