Nurses in cancer care—coping strategies when encountering existential issues

Citation

Ekedahl M & Wengstrom Y (2006) Nurses in cancer care—coping strategies when encountering existential issues. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 10 (2), pp. 128-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2005.05.003

Abstract
Summary This paper is a presentation of general/secular coping strategies and strategies related to the caritas orientation that nurses in cancer care use when encountering stress. As a concept, caritas indicates the will to do good. The paper tries to provide an answer to the question of which functional and dysfunctional coping strategies nurses use when coping with work-related stress. The study is qualitative and hypothesis-generating. The material analysed consists of 15 interviews with Swedish registered nurses and is based on a life-story approach. Pargament’s coping theory related to the psychology of religion has been applied for interpretation purposes. The nurses use several coping strategies with the dominant strategy being a general boundary demarcation. Other strategies that were used for coping included emotional outlets, caritas—oblivion and periodically changing activity. The strategies can be used in a functional or dysfunctional way; e.g. dysfunctional coping was present when there was a lack of human support and boundary demarcation.

Keywords
Existential issues; stress; coping; coping strategies; Stress Psychology; Cancer Nursing; Nurses Job stress; Patients and carers

Journal
European Journal of Oncology Nursing: Volume 10, Issue 2