Experience of women undergoing infertility treatments and expectations from nurses

Objective: The purpose of the study is to assess the experience of women undergoing infertility treatments and expectations from nurses.Method: The research is a qualitative study. It was carried out in 2 centers. One of them belongs to Ministry of Health and the other is a private hospital. Criterion sampling method was used. The sampling involved 21 infertile women having diagnosis of primer infertility and a treatment history of six months. The data were collected through `semi-structured interview form? and `in-depth interview?, and only one interview was made with each women. All the interviews were recorded by tape recorder after taking permission from women. The data were assessed through the method of `thematic analysis?.Result: Nine main themes and sub-themes were determined related to the experiences and expectations of the infertile women from nurses during their treatment period. These main themes were reported as their physical and emotional experiences, relations with their husbands, connections with their family and social environment, experiences of institutional/medical procedures and complementary medicine, transportation, as well as economic/monetary and experiences including their expectations from nurses.Conclusion: According to the data obtained during this research, it was observed that women had difficulties in the process of each stage of their treatment. It was seen that besides these difficulties due to the treatment of women, they also had other difficulties in their family, social environment and working field because of the effects of this treatment period. It was understood that what women expected from nurses was effective and friendly communication, consultation during every stage of treatment, feeling of being cared and regarded, treatment provided by a particular nurse, and feeling of trust towards their nurses caring them.The difficulties that women experience during their treatment period must be defined by preparing definition forms. It is suggested that women should be informed in every stage of their treatment and consultation should be performed by the nurses specialized in the field of infertility.Key Words: Infertility, Assisted reproductive techniques, Nursing, Qualitative study.