Care for the oncologic patient with chronic pain from the point of view of the nurse

Abstract

This study aims to understand how nurses interpret the care given to cancer patients with chronic pain. The informers were eight nurses from a public hospital. Data were collected on the basis of semi-structured interviews and the analysis identified three analytical categories: the evaluation of patients' pain, the importance of multidisciplinary care and nurses' difficulties to care for these patients. The results show that nurses have difficulties to care for such patients and need to update their specific knowledge related to cancer, chronic pain and its treatment as well as their skills to deal with emotions in order to promote adequate psychological support.