• Kelli I Stajduhar, Laura M Funk, Della Roberts, Denise Cloutier-Fisher, Barbara McLeod, Carolyn Wilkinson, and Mary Ellen Purkis.
• School of Nursing and Centre on Aging, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. kis@uvic.ca
• Qual Health Res. 2011 Jan 1;21(1):117-31.

AbstractIn this article, we draw on data collected from two samples of home care nurses to examine how relationships between nurses and family caregivers intersected with access to palliative home care nursing services. Participants referred to relationships as important for their practical benefits and for access to care: good relationships enhanced the nurse's ability to assess clients and families and fostered the family's trust in the nurse's care. Although emphasizing the need to build and maintain relationships (often requiring time), participants simultaneously referred to beliefs about the need to control the personal emotions invoked in relationships so as to ensure appropriate access for clients and families. Future research should further explore how the organizational and resource context, and the culture of palliative care, shape nurses' beliefs about relationships in their practice, the nature and types of relationships that can develop, and both client and family caregivers' access to care.

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