This study emphasises the importance of health workers in possessing the knowledge and competence required to educate, guide and support the next of kin of those with cancer. Health workers should provide care to next of kin, and a support system for next of kin must also be available.

Communication between nurses and patients is a pivotal dimension in cancer care. However, one aspect that has received little investigation is the nature of goal-related communications between patient and nurse. This study was designed to investigate the goal-directed communications of nurse-patient interactions in outpatient cancer clinics in Norway. The field study was a naturalistic inquiry involving audio-recordings of eight naturally occurring patient-nurse conversations. Data were content analysed for recurring communication themes and patterns of communication goals. Data revealed three main themes: the medical treatment plan, the patient's cancer situation and prognosis and the patient's psychosocial reactions to their illness. The extent to which each theme was discussed and the types of nurses' and patients' goals varied depending upon the patient's situation. Nurses should be participative in goal-setting and pay great attention to patients' goals and be particularly sensitive to signs of uncertainty. More research is required in order to fully understand the processes involved and help nurses to effectively deal with the core issues involved in these consultations.

Cancer nurses' role appreciation and meaning horizons are guiding their perceptions of patient-nurse communication. Feeling free to act in interplay with patients' voices, the patients' perspectives become foreground. There is an educational challenge here in terms of developing methods to help nurses to discover how their mental work and meaning horizons guide conversational practice.

No abstract

No abstract