Concept Analysis of Palliative Care in Nursing: Introducing a Hybrid Model

Background and Palliative care is an important concept in nursing practice and in literature several definitions are suggested for this concept. This study aimed at analyzing the concept of palliative care and identifying its features, antecedents and consequences within Iran’s cultural context. Hybrid model of concept analysis was used to clarify the meaning of palliative care. The three phases of a hybrid concept analysis included theoretical, fieldwork, and final analysis. In theoretical phase different databases including PubMed, CINAHL, Science direct, Google scholar, SID and Magiran were searched for related articles (published in 2003-2013). The search keywords were palliative care and nursing care in the titles and abstracts. In the fieldwork phase semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted through purposive sampling in eight nurses. In next step, by combining the two previous stages the final analysis was performed. In final analytical phase, main themes were extracted including pain management, holistic care, spirituality based care and religious based care. The findings showed that palliative care is an important aspect of clinical practice. It is a holistic, humanistic and corporative care for promoting the quality of life of patients and their families that support them while considering physical, psychological, spiritual, religious, cultural and social aspects. This type of care is beneficial throughout life and also in difficult situations such as famine and it should not be used just for end-stage patients.