Community Nurses’ Preparations for and Challenges in Providing Palliative Home Care: A Qualitative Study

Hospitals have played a leading role in providing palliative care in Taiwan as its care model has developed over the past few decades. However, earlier local studies in Taiwan showed that terminal patients prefer to die at home, highlighting the need to promote community-based palliative care instead of hospital-based care. Along with this shift, how community nurses provide palliative home care merits further exploration. This qualitative descriptive study aims to understand (1) how community nurses implement community-based palliative care, (2) what preparations are needed, and (3) what challenges they may face. Purposive sampling was used for recruiting nurses. We conducted one-on-one, in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Interview recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. Eight community nurses with a range of experience in palliative home care were interviewed. Four major themes emerged: (1) Opportunities, (2) Qualifications, (3) Support, and (4) Commitments. Psychological preparedness, well-developed professional capabilities, external assistance, and peer support motivate community nurses to offer community-based palliative care. As the requests for palliative home care services increase, community nurses play a critical role in palliative home care. Although the sample size is small and the findings retrieved from a small number of experiences might not be generalized to every region, the study results could inform future experience-sharing and workshop sessions to train more nurses for community-based care, expanding service coverage, and providing optimal palliative care.