Concealing emotions: nurses' experiences with induced abortion care

Aims and Objectives To explore the experiences of nurses involved with induced abortion care in the delivery room in Taiwan. Background Induced abortion has emotional, ethical and legal facets. In Taiwan, several studies have addressed the ethical issues, abortion methods and women's experiences with abortion care. Although abortion rates have increased, there has been insufficient attention on the views and experiences of nurses working in the delivery room who are involved with induced abortion care. Design Qualitative, semistructured interviews. Methods This study used a purposive sampling method. In total, 22 nurses involved with induced abortion care were selected. Semistructured interviews with guidelines were conducted, and the content analysis method was used to analyse the data. Results Our study identified one main theme and five associated subthemes: concealing emotions, which included the inability to refuse, contradictory emotions, mental unease, respect for life and self‐protection. Conclusion This is the first specific qualitative study performed in Taiwan to explore nurses' experiences, and this study also sought to address the concealing of emotions by nurses when they perform induced abortion care, which causes moral distress and creates ethical dilemmas. The findings of this study showed that social‐cultural beliefs profoundly influence nurses' values and that the rights of nurses are neglected. Relevance to clinical practice The profession should promote small‐group and case‐study discussions, the clarification of values and reflective thinking among nurses. Continued professional education that provides stress relief will allow nurses to develop self‐healing and self‐care behaviours, which will enable them to overcome the fear of death while strengthening pregnancy termination counselling, leading to better quality professional care.