"Everything That Is Not Curative Is Now Palliative": A Nurse Perspective.

127Background: Advances in oncology increasingly result in protracted disease trajectories for with incurable cancer. This phase can be described as advanced / metastatic cancer and in which anti-cancer treatment should control symptoms, slow disease progression, and/or prolong life. It poses new challenges for and their doctors; it is unknown how and which disease labels are used by nurses. Methods: Qualitative ethnographic study, based on in-depth interviews with 13 oncology nurses at the day-care unit in a Dutch comprehensive cancer hospital. Results: A substantial number of nurses reported not to know whether were treated with a curative or palliative intent, and to follow a patient-centred approach. Other nurses clearly demarcated palliative patients, and some distinguished real palliative patients from with long-standing incurable cancer. When nurses were explicitly asked about medical terminology, many nurses were not very positive about the term palliative. ...