Aims and objectives: The aim was to explore how nurses experience compassionate care for patients with cancer and family caregivers in different phases of the palliative pathway.Background: Compassion is fundamental to palliative care and viewed as a cornerstone of high‐quality care provision. Healthcare authorities emphasize that patients should have the opportunity to stay at home for as long as possible. There are, however, care deficiencies in the palliative pathway.Design: This study employed a qualitative design using focus groups and a hermeneutic approach.Methods: Four focus groups with three to seven female nurses in each group were conducted in Mid‐Norway in 2018. Nurses’ ages ranged from 28–60 years (mean age = 45 years), and they were recruited through purposive sampling (N = 21). Compassionate care was chosen as the theoretical framework. Reporting followed the COREQ guidelines.Results: Three themes expressing compassionate care related to different phases of the pathway were identified: (a) information and dialogue, (b) creating a space for dying and (c) family caregivers’ acceptance of death.Conclusions: This study showed that it was crucial to create a space for dying, characterized by trust, collaboration, good relationships, empathy, attention, silence, caution, slowness, symptom relief and the absence of noise and conflict.Relevance to clinical practice: The quality of compassion possessed by individual practitioners, as well as the overall design of the healthcare system, must be considered when creating compassionate care for patients and their family caregivers. Nursing educators and health authorities should pay attention to the development of compassion in education and practice. Further research should highlight patients’ and family caregivers’ experiences of compassionate care and determine how healthcare systems can support compassionate care.

Appetite loss is prevalent in patients with advanced cancer and negatively affects their quality of life. However, understanding of the factors associated with appetite loss is limited. The current study aims to explore characteristics and therapeutic interventions used for patients with and without appetite loss admitted to an acute palliative care unit. Patient characteristics and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), using the 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS 0–10), were registered. Descriptive statistics, independent samples T-tests and chi-square tests were utilized for data analysis. Of the 167 patients included in the analysis, 62% (104) had moderate to severe appetite loss at admission, whereof 63% (66) improved their appetite during their hospital stay. At admission, there was a significant association between appetite loss and having gastrointestinal cancer, living alone, poor performance status and withdrawn anticancer treatment. Patients with appetite loss also experienced more nausea, depression, fatigue, dyspnea and anxiety. In patients with improved appetite during hospitalization, mean decrease in NRS was 3.4 (standard error (SE) 0.27). Additionally, patients living alone were more likely to improve their appetite. Appetite improvement frequently coincided with alleviation of fatigue. Understanding these associations may help in developing better interventions for managing appetite loss in patients with advanced cancer.

Introduction: Patient participation is essential for quality palliative care, and physicians play a crucial role in promoting participation. This study explores physicians' perceptions of patients and family caregivers' involvement in the different phases of the palliative pathway and employs a qualitative design with thematic analysis and a hermeneutic approach.Methods: A purposive sampling included physicians who worked in different phases of the palliative pathway. In‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 13 physicians in Norway between May and June 2020.Results: Three main themes illustrate physicians' perceptions of patients' and family caregivers' involvement: (1) beneficence for the patient and the family caregivers in the early phase, (2) autonomy and shared decision‐making in the middle phase, and (3) family involvement in the terminal phase.Conclusion: The physicians perceived bereavement conversations as essential, particularly if the pathway had been challenging. They also perceived patient participation and family caregivers' involvement as contextual. The results reveal that participation differs across the different phases of the palliative pathway. This type of knowledge should be included in the education of health‐care professionals. Future research should explore elements vital to successful patient participation and family involvement in the different phases of care.Patient or Public Contributions: Family caregivers were involved in a previous study through individual interviews. The same interview guide used for the family caregivers was used when interviewing the physicians. The family caregivers' contribution led to nuanced questions in the interviews with the physicians, questions leaning on their stories told.