Biomaterial Database

Talking about end-of-life care: Perspectives of nursing home residents. 2018

Gail L Towsley, and Karen B Hirschman

University of Utah College of Nursing, 10 South 2000 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. Electronic address: gail.towsley@nurs.utah.edu.

The purpose of the paper is to describe how residents express preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care. For this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews and completed conventional content analysis to describe how residents' expressed their preferences for care at the end of life. Sixteen residents from four nursing homes (NH) in southeastern Pennsylvania participated in this study. Residents were on average 88 years old, primarily non White, and widowed. Three key domains emerged from the analyses: Preferences for Today, Anticipating the End of My Life, and Preferences for Final Days. Residents linked their everyday living and EOL preferences by using 'if and then' logic to convey anticipation and readiness related to EOL. These findings suggest new strategies to start discussions of EOL care preferences with NH residents.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007407	Interviews as Topic	Works about conversations with an individual or individuals held in order to obtain information about their background and other personal biographical data, their attitudes and opinions, etc. It includes works about school admission or job interviews.	Group Interviews,Interviewers,Interviews, Telephone,Oral History as Topic,Group Interview,Interview, Group,Interview, Telephone,Interviewer,Interviews, Group,Telephone Interview,Telephone Interviews
D008297	Male		Males
D009735	Nursing Homes	Facilities which provide nursing supervision and limited medical care to persons who do not require hospitalization.	Homes, Nursing,Nursing Home
D010414	Pennsylvania	State bounded on the north by New York and Lake Erie, on the east by Delaware and New Jersey, on the south by Delaware and Maryland, and on the west by Ohio and West Virginia.
D003142	Communication	The exchange or transmission of ideas, attitudes, or beliefs between individuals or groups.	Miscommunication,Misinformation,Social Communication,Communication Programs,Communications Personnel,Personal Communication,Communication Program,Communication, Personal,Communication, Social,Communications, Social,Miscommunications,Misinformations,Personnel, Communications,Program, Communication,Programs, Communication,Social Communications
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000369	Aged, 80 and over	Persons 80 years of age and older.	Oldest Old
D013727	Terminal Care	Medical and nursing care of patients in the terminal stage of an illness.	End-Of-Life Care,End of Life Care,Care, End-Of-Life,Care, Terminal,End-Of-Life Cares
D057240	Patient Preference	Individual's expression of desirability or value of one course of action, outcome, or selection in contrast to others.	Patient Preferences,Preference, Patient,Preferences, Patient