Nurses' Perceptions on Cancer Patient's Loneliness

Cancer patients do experience loneliness at the end of their journey. In this study nurses described cancer patient's feelings such as insecurity, acceptance, and altered role. In addition, nurses described physical pain and feeling of isolation to be a significant role in an individual's loneliness. A qualitative research method was used. The topic originated from the project ¿ Experiences of Loneliness, which was innovated by Espoo city. The data were collected from nursing home for terminally ill patients based in Helsinki from February to March 2009. The method used to analyse the data was qualitative content analysis. The findings were categorized as social loneliness, psychological loneliness, physiological loneliness, spiritual loneliness and involvement. In recognizing patient's loneliness and helping them to have a peaceful death, nurses offered a handling method of: family involvement, patient's own pet, and program for patient's peer group that was then developed.