2016_01_22_ENF_tesis_errasti

A doctoral thesis defended by Begoña Errasti, professor at the School of Nursing at the University of Navarra, addressed the relationship between the nurse and the advanced and terminal cancer patient following Max Van Manen's phenomenological-hermeneutic method. The ultimate aim of this subject of research is to write a phenomenological text that reflects the essence of the phenomenon being studied and, at the same time, evokes the reader's understanding of it in a very lively way. The researcher believes that this is the first doctoral thesis in Nursing defended in Spain that has faithfully followed the method of this renowned author.

In the internship, this study can serve for nursing professionals to give a competent response, adapted and appropriate to each particular case when caring for patients with advanced and terminal cancer and, in particular, relate to them. This is because phenomenological texts have a great formative potential.

According to the researcher, "in the healthcare context, the relationships that health professionals maintain with patients are fundamental. However, in the case of patients living with advanced and terminal cancer, the relationship they have with nursing professionals is much more important and vital than is generally believed. This is clear from their thesis , which points out that professionals who establish a genuine relationship with patients exert a therapeutic influence even without directly intending to do so. 

How an authentic nurse-patient relationship influences

This therapeutic influence acts in different ways: it allows patients to live with more security; it makes them feel loved, valued and appreciated by the nurses, helping them not to lose their sense of dignity staff; likewise, they may feel affectionately and compassionately accompanied in the most difficult moments, coming to experience the relationship with the nurses as a plus of financial aid that may even allow them to experience their status with a notorious existential sense.

In all these cases,"the importance of the relationship lies in the cardinal meaning and significance for these patients of feeling loved, as well as in the great need they have to feel loved as very significant people by nursing professionals".

The thesis , entitled"The interpersonal relationship between the nurse and the cared-for person: an approach from the lived experience of the person with advanced and terminal cancer", was directed by María Arantzamendi, a researcher of the ATLANTES Program of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), and by Mercedes Pérez, dean of the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, both members of the Institute of research Sanitaria de Navarra (IDISNA); and is part of a project (PI13/02039) subsidized by the Fund of research Sanitaria and co-financed by the European Regional development Fund (ERDF). The literature review of the doctoral thesis has been published in Nursing Outlook, one of the highest impact journals in the field of nursing.