Palliative Cancer Care Stress and Coping Among Clinical Nurses Who Experience End-of-Life Care

The increasing number of cancer patients and prolonged periods of illness have led to an increase in nurses' stress and various other problems. This research aimed to identify the stress resulting from caring for cancer patients and the methods for coping with stress among cancer care nurses. The research subjects were 180 clinical nurses caring for cancer patients in a hospital in Korea. Stress caused by excessive workloads, inappropriate compensation, and interpersonal conflicts with physicians was high. There was a difference in stress according to age. Coping strategies differed according to religion, education, occupation, hospice education, job satisfaction, and leisure activities. The higher the stress, the greater the number of coping strategies used. Problem-related coping was associated with more diverse stressors. Stress characteristics differed according to various factors, whereas stress coping strategies depended on the stress characteristics of clinical nurses caring for cancer patients. Future research following a critical approach will be needed to elucidate the compassion fatigue related to the stress strategies of clinical nurses. These findings could contribute to the development of interventions to reduce stress in clinical nurses by providing evidence on the stress and coping methods of nurses who provide palliative care for cancer patients.