The experience of stress for cancer nurses: a heideggerian phenomenological approach

Abstract

Caring for people has frequently been described as stressful. Managing the disease (Stewart et al 1982) and the work environment (Papadatou et al 1994), meeting the emotional demands of patients and families (Delvaux et al 1988), feeling helpless and empathizing with the patient's suffering (Gray-Toft & Anderson 1980, Ullrich & FitzGerald 1990) have all been suggested to contribute to the stress of health-care professionals in the field of cancer care. Understanding the experiences of cancer nurses is intrinsic to the development of cancer care and cancer service provision. This is demonstrated by the relationship found between cancer carer stress and poor communication, patient and family distress, and poor quality of care (Delvaux et al 1988). Although there is now a substantial body of research exploring stress and burnout in cancer care, we only have a limited understanding of how stress fee l s and how it is experienced. Stress and burnout remain conceptually confused and ill defined. This has implications for the usefulness of the majority of studies which use survey designs to delineate the specific variables of stress. Studies have also concentrated on an individual level of analysis leaving the relationship between the individual's subjective experience and the broader social context untheorized (Handy 1988).