Background

Nonordinary experiences (NOEs), i.e. spiritual, paranormal or religious experiences, have a significant impact on life: NOEs are often accompanied by biographical turning points or crises of meaning, as can be seen in people facing the end of their lives.

Nevertheless, when healthcare professionals experience NOEs, it is considered taboo at a societal level, especially when these experiences are interpreted as religious, spiritual or paranormal, because they do not fit into the biomedical world view.

So far, there's been only a few studies on NOEs among palliative care nurses who regularly deal with illness and death in their day-to-day work.

Aims

The aim is to describe NOEs among nurses in the work context in various palliative care settings and to examine its influence on the nursing staff and nursing practice - e.g. on job satisfaction, on the ability to respond to the dying person. Concrete difficulties as well as specific factors and circumstances for a helpful approach to AgE in care will be identified.

Method

An exploratory qualitative interview study (n=25) using a grounded theory approach will be conducted. The focus lies on interviews with nursing professionals in the field of palliative care. Persons from other professional groups in the health context will also be included in the study.