Nurses’ self-regulation after engaging in end-of-life conversations with advanced cancer patients: a qualitative study

TL;DR

This study explores how nurses in China manage their emotions after having difficult end-of-life conversations with cancer patients.

Contribution

The study identifies factors influencing nurses' self-regulation and outcomes like self-growth or exhaustion.

Findings

Personality, experience, and support influence nurses' self-regulation.

Self-regulation can lead to either self-growth or self-exhaustion.

Peer and counseling support are crucial for positive self-regulation outcomes.

Abstract

Self-regulation is crucial for nurses who engage in in-depth end-of-life conversations with advanced cancer patients, especially in cultural contexts featuring death taboos. An improved understanding of the self-regulation process of nurses can help them address negative emotions and promote self-growth more effectively. Therefore, this study aimed to explore nurses’ self-regulation process after end-of-life conversations with advanced cancer patients.

This study employed a descriptive, qualitative approach. Seventeen nurses from four hospitals and a hospice unit in mainland China were interviewed between September 2022 and June 2023. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews. A thematic analysis method was used to analyse the data following the guidance of regulatory focus theory.

Three main themes were developed: self-regulation antecedents include personality, experience, and support; promotion or prevention is a possible self-regulation process for nurses; both self-exhaustion and self-growth may be the outcomes of self-regulation, as did seven subthemes. Personality tendencies, life experience, and perceived support may affect nurses’ self-regulation, thereby affecting their self-regulation outcomes.

Nurses exhibit different self-regulatory tendencies and self-regulation outcomes. The provision of peer support and counselling support to nurses is highly important with regard to achieving good self-regulation outcomes.

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