PERCEIVED PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT AND THE USE OF BLOCKING BEHAVIORS BY HOSPICE NURSES

A prospective study of the impact of training 41 hospice nurses in ass essment skills was used to test hypotheses that blocking behaviours wo uld be used more when patients disclosed feelings and used less when n urses perceived that they had satisfactory professional support, Each nurse was asked to assess a patient's current problems before and afte r feedback training and 8 months later. Audiotape recordings of these interviews were rated by trained raters. They determined the frequency of nurses' responses which had the function of blocking patient discl osure and the emotional level of patient disclosure. Before each patie nt assessment each nurse was interviewed and questionnaires administer ed to measure her perceptions of the support she received. Blocking be haviours were most evident when patients disclosed their feelings (Ken dalls r = 0.36, P < 0.001). In interviews containing most patient disc losure of feeling, blocking was significantly less (r = -0.24, P < 0.5 ) when the nurse felt that practical help would be available if needed and when the nurse felt that her direct supervisor was concerned abou t the nurse's own welfare (r = -0.37, P < 0.005).