The Mental Well-being of Palliative Care Nurses: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Nurses working in palliative care encounter the aspect of death at a higher frequency during the course of their care practice when compared to nurses working in other curative care fields. This is because many of the patients receiving palliative care are at their final stage of life. Individuals respond differently to stressors and the prevalence of these stressors can affect one’s mental well-being, overall individual wellness, and the ability to perform one’s responsibilities. This study aimed to discuss the mental well-being of palliative care nurses and explore the determining factors that affect their mental well-being. A qualitative research approach of systematic literature review was adapted in this study by keenly analyzing 11 qualitative scientific peer-reviewed articles from the year 2017 to the year 2023. These articles were obtained from scientific databases of Academic Search Elite, CINAHL, and MEDLINE. Inclusion and exclusion method was used in screening and filtering of the articles, and the information was then presented in a Prisma flow chart of data collection.

The findings indicated that the mental well-being of palliative care nurses is viewed from two perspectives. A positive perspective that is characterized by resilience which is a result of factors such as self-care, grief counselling, interpersonal and organizational support. The other perspective that was highlighted in the findings was a negative perspective characterized by burnout and emotional distress which resulted due to factors like heavy workload, the ubiquity of death, and grief. Further research should be undertaken on this topic to increase awareness and contribution of knowledge about well-being not only in palliative nursing but the entire nursing field. The more research is done, the more scientific evidence there is to develop the nursing structure by improving the lives of the nurses, the patients, and their families.