CAREN logo

You are here

  1. Home
  2. Nurses' experience of delivering a supportive intervention for family members of patients with lung cancer

Nurses' experience of delivering a supportive intervention for family members of patients with lung cancer

Families contribute to maintaining the well-being of people with cancer through providing emotional and practical support, frequently at significant cost to their own well-being, and often with little help from healthcare professionals. This paper describes nurses' experience of providing an innovative service to support the families of people with lung cancer. A process of group reflection by the three nurses involved in delivering the intervention has produced an autoethnographic account of taking part in this study. Three main themes relating to the nature and process of delivering the intervention were identified: ‘meeting diverse need’, ‘differing models of delivery’ and ‘dilemma and emotion’. Supporting family members of patients with lung cancer can be immensely rewarding for nurses and potentially bring significant benefit. However, this kind of work can also be demanding in terms of time and emotional cost. These findings demonstrate the value of incorporating process evaluation in feasibility studies for articulating, refining and developing complex interventions. Determining the applicability and utility of the intervention for other practice settings requires further evaluation.

Access source material through DOI
Additional Titles
European Journal of Cancer Care

Key Information

Type of Reference
Jour
ISBN/ISSN
0961-5423
Resource Database
Web of science - exported 12/7/2016
Publication Year
2011
Issue Number
4
Volume Number
20
Start Page
436-444