The Local Research and Ethics Committee and the Research
Governance Committee for the local trust approved the
questionnaire. Ethical approval was granted, as there was a
considered opinion that the participants were able to make
their own decision as to whether they wanted to complete the
questionnaire. The British Psychological Society Ethical
Guidelines were followed at all times (British Psychological
Society 1993). Face-to-face discussion with the relevant
senior nurses from the clinical areas took place to explain
the instructions for distribution and completion of the
questionnaires. The written instructions on the front sheet
of the questionnaire emphasized that the responses would
remain anonymous and that the participants should complete
the questionnaires individually, refraining from co-operating
in their answers. Fifty questionnaires were allocated to the
hospice/oncology nurses (specialist) and 50 to the district
nurses (general). The respective senior nurses explained the
instructions to the prospective participants at their team
meeting and distributed the material by leaving the questionnaires
in the staff room/general office. The participants were
self-selecting, based on their willingness to participate and
completed the questionnaires alone, then posted their
responses in a sealed designated box in the staff room/general
office. The questionnaires were collected two weeks later by
the researcher