Anchoring Through Touch: Nurses' Perspectives on the Meaning of Hygiene Care for Patients at the End of Life in Palliative Care Wards-A Grounded Theory Study.

PurposeTo explore how nurses in palliative care wards perceive hygiene care for patients at the end of life.DesignA theory-generating qualitative study based on the grounded theory approach.MethodsEighteen nurses working in palliative care wards were recruited through purposive and theoretical sampling. Semistructured interviews were conducted between January and May 2025. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach.Findings"Anchoring through touch" emerged as the core category; touch refers not merely to physical contact, but to a responsive mode of practice wherein nurses adjust care according to patients' pain, anxiety, embarrassment, comfort, and discomfort. Patients initially experienced hygiene care as "relinquishing their former everyday life," but responsive touch enabled "reorienting through bodily pleasantness" and "opening of the self through acceptance." Sensory stimuli and trusting dialogue facilitated "encountering the self across time," helping patients reinterpret their lives and achieve "recovery of a sense of connectedness." Conversely, pain and distress rendered this process fragile, increasing susceptibility to "pain-induced existential instability."ConclusionsThis study theorizes hygiene care as a holistic nursing practice supporting bodily, emotional, relational, temporal, and existential dimensions through responsive touch. "Anchoring through touch" offers an empirical foundation for understanding whole-person healing within everyday fundamental nursing care.