Nurses' perception of adequacy of care for leukemia patients with distress during the incurable phase and related factors

Leukemia patients experience distress during the incurable phase of illness. Adequacy of care (i.e., extent to which care relieves the patients' suffering) was described from the nurses' viewpoint, and institutional factors related to adequacy of care were explored. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 425 nurses working in 26 hematology wards. Nurses tended to rate the care as inadequate. In particular, care for social distress needs to be improved. Our findings suggest that communication among health professionals, utilization of hospital resources, and palliative care education for staff were important in palliative care for leukemia patients during the incurable phase.