Rita Ferguson
University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA
Title: Patient-Centered Care: The live experiences of nurses providing hospice care
Biography
Biography: Rita Ferguson
Abstract
An expected competency of a nurse is to provide patient-centered care. Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) defined this competency as recognition of the partnership with the patient in the provision of compassionate care that is coordinated and based on regard for the patient’s desires, values, and needs. The knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to demonstrate this competency are many. The business aspect of healthcare emphasizes numbers and completion of tasks. There has also been concern regarding the emphasis in nursing education on the science and biomedical knowledge without the inclusion of attentiveness to the individual receiving health care. When questioned regarding their work, nurses often describe the tasks associated with nursing as defining their work. Nursing care is more than tasks. Nursing is comprised of the relationships with the patient and their identified family members, knowledge both scientific and experiential, and the ethical values of the profession. It is important that the work of nurses who work in community hospice settings be visible. A study of registered nurses who worked in hospice agencies expanded insight about their lived experiences of knowing about and caring for patients receiving hospice care and how they provided patient-centered care. This presentation will provide insight to how nurses who work in hospice services delivered patient-centered care. It will offer visibility to the important work of hospice nursing and reveal that more than scientific knowledge is needed to provide patient-centered care in the hospice setting.