TY - JOUR T1 - Capturing a palliative approach to COPD nursing: Engaging with the search for meaning in suffering JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - 169 AU - Geralyn Hynes Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/169.abstract N2 - COPD Palliative care debate has centred on needs assessment, symptom management, and advanced care planning. Less attention is given to the search for meaning in suffering as an integral to a palliative approach to care. This may be reducing palliative care to its more technical aspects.This research explored the presence of meaning making in advanced COPD and its possible relationship to 1) anxiety and depression for patients; 2) how nurses respond to care in the acute medical setting.A two phased action research project was undertaken, Palliative care needs were identified in phase one through structured patient interviews involving 26 patients applying the SGRQ and HADS. Interviews were recorded capturing qualitative data from expanded responses to the closed questions on the questionnaires. An integrated approach to data analysis examined the coded narratives behind the scores. In phase two, an action research group of respiratory and palliative care nurses met over 17 months to explore care delivery with reference to phase one findings.The mean scores for SGRQ, and anxiety and depression were 62; 8; and 7 respectively. Of the themes from the qualitative data, loss and contextualising meaning reflected response to suffering. Past life and illness experiences were bound up in participants' meaning making. In phase two, illness oriented care narratives in which nurses engaged with their patients in making meaning of suffering represented “corridor speak” and so rarely entered official documentation or discourse.Current focus on palliative care in advanced COPD needs to be carefully debated by respiratory nurses if we are to engage with the palliative concept. ER -