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The Perceived needs of the terminally ill

While there is considerable international interest in the development of hospice and palliative care programs, as an alternative form of care for the terminally ill, there is minimal empirical research undertaken on the needs of recipients of these programs. Using a Q-sort, developed by the author, this research examined the relationship between individual patient's ranking of their needs, and the nurse's perception of the needs identified by individual
patients in their care.

A basic assumption of the study was that patients' needs could be categorised in four groups, namely spiritual, physical, emotional, and social. Consequently, the study also examined whether patients and nurses identified, as most important, needs from one group, more frequently than the other groups.

The limited size of the sample placed severe restrictions on the analysis of results derived from this research. However, while no definite conclusions could be drawn from data obtained from the small sample, tentative analysis identified trends that may have proved significant had they continued in a larger sample.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218577
Date January 1989
CreatorsFulton, Graham, n/a
PublisherUniversity of Canberra. Education
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Rights), Copyright Graham Fulton

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