Exploring nurses' perceptions on caring for patients with Huntington's disease

Abstract

This study main focus explored what are the perceptions of nurses' on caring for patients with Huntington’s disease. Research concerning nurses' perceptions on caring for these particular patients seems to be limited, mostly within Maltese context, as research mainly focuses on the experiences and perceptions of the family care givers and the patient affected with Huntington’s disease. Nevertheless, this study discussed literatures on the various aspects of what nurses’ experience when they are caring for these patients which aided in responding the research question. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006), a qualitative approach was adopted and the five nurses recruited from Mount Carmel Hospital and St. Vincent De Paul Residence, were selected though purposive sampling. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews following data analysis, four themes were discovered: Perceptions on Huntington’s disease and on the impacted patients, Nursing qualities to care for Huntington’s patients, The nurse relationship with the patient, the patient’s relatives and co-workers & The stress and coping of nurses when caring for Huntington’s patients. The findings showed the various perceptions participants have on Huntington’s disease such as the challenges faced when caring for patients impacted with this disease, the feelings of nurses and insights on lack of support for such disease. The study also showed the impact of abilities and connections that nurses have when caring for these patients. From the results it was noted that the nurses shared that caring for patients with Huntington's disease is stressful and they felt that their work envionment aggravated their stress. In addition, the nurses also shared how they cope when caring for Huntington’s patients.