Aim: To describe the qualitatively different ways a group of Australian nurses understood their experience of being a palliative care nurse.
Design: The research approach chosen was phenomenography. Fifteen nurses caring for people in a specialist palliative care unit in regional Australia were interviewed and transcribed interview data were analysed in order to identify understanding of experience.
Findings: The research identified and described five ways of understanding the experience of being a palliative care nurse: doing everything you can; developing closeness; working as a team; creating meaning about life; and maintaining myself.
Conclusion: The group of palliative care nurses involved in this research understood their experience as journeying with their patients through the final phases of the person's life. The journey involved the patient, his/her family and members of the healthcare team. The journey was described further as a process of personal development which influenced how nurses construct meaning about life and maintain a sense of self. The experiences described reveal a great deal about palliative care nursing and provide useful knowledge and insights to assist practitioners, managers and educators.