Abstract
The aim of this research study was to gain an understanding of nurses’ experiences of providing care to patients from minority ethnic groups within the specialist palliative care inpatient unit of an Irish hospice. Five nurses working in a hospice inpatient unit with experience in providing care to patients from minority ethnic groups were interviewed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Analysis of the data resulted in the emergence of two distinct constructs, “encountering a landscape of diversity” and “negotiating this landscape”, each one comprising three themes. Findings relating to religion and supporting patients’ religious needs were dominant in four of the six emergent themes—death and dying, acceptance, feeling their way, and being resourceful. The findings presented in this paper highlight the personal and professional challenges facing nurses when providing care in the context of religious diversity. In addition, participants’ descriptions of their endeavours to negotiate the challenges in the context of these differences are identified. By applying these findings in practice, healthcare professionals hold the potential to positively impact the quality-of-life of patients, their families, and their experiences of hospice care in Ireland.
Highlights
Increases in immigration since the 1990s means that healthcare professionals working in hospices in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) are encountering increasing numbers of patients from ethnic backgrounds that differ from those of the healthcare professionals
This situation is reflected internationally where there is a dearth of research focusing on nurses’ experiences of providing care to patients from minority ethnic groups within hospice specialist palliative care inpatient units
The primary researcher is as a specialist palliative care inpatient unit nurse, with experience of the phenomenon under investigation, and it would have been difficult to bracket their own lived-reality while undertaking this study, as is espoused by Husserl
Summary
Increases in immigration since the 1990s means that healthcare professionals working in hospices in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) are encountering increasing numbers of patients from ethnic backgrounds that differ from those of the healthcare professionals. Death is a universal experience, individual beliefs and practices regarding illness, death and dying vary across ethnic groups and expectations of hospice care in this regard are likely to vary [2]. The recognition and facilitation of ethnic diversity is central to palliative care policy in Ireland [3], there is little information about nurses’ experience of this, and whether or not challenges exist in practice. This situation is reflected internationally where there is a dearth of research focusing on nurses’ experiences of providing care to patients from minority ethnic groups within hospice specialist palliative care inpatient units. Eastern Europeans and Asians constitute the largest new ethnic groups in the ROI [5]
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