Background:

Recent research within the subject shows that the nurse can experience feelings such as anxiousness, helplessness and disappointment in palliative care for the patients. To have a greater understanding of the feelings the nurse may experience and what it means for the nurse to care for the patients in their last stages of life, further research is required to increase the quality of the palliative care given by the nurses.

Aim:

the purpose of the study was to elucidate nurse's experience of caring for palliative patients at end of life.

Method:

A literature-based study based on the analysis of qualitative data.

Results

: This study resulted in three main theme, which was named "Experience of feelings", "Experience of hardship" and "Experience of support".

Conclusion:

the main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is a lack of sufficient resources in the field of palliative care, such as economic funding, lack of staff resources and equipment. It shows that nurses are not given sufficient time to establish a good relationship with the patients. A good relationship between the nurse and the patient is vital in order to enable the nurse to give the best palliative care to the patient.

Palliative care today lacks not only in resources, but also a common view that provides guidelines for how to provide palliative care.