Background: Little is known of paid carers' perspectives when caring for people with intellectual disabilities at the end-of-life. Materials and methods: Sixty four individuals from intellectual disability services took part in 12 focus groups. Interviews were analysed using framework analysis. Results: Participants wanted to provide palliative…

Hopelessness has become an increasingly important construct in palliative care research, yet concerns exist regarding the utility of existing measures when applied to patients with a terminal illness. This article describes a series of studies focused on the exploration, development, and analysis of a measure of hopelessness specifically intended…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the attitudes of terminally ill patients toward death and dying. Four hospitals in Nigeria were randomly selected: University College Hospital, Ibadan; University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City; the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos; and Igbinedion Specialist Hospital, Okada, Benin City.…

Several studies have shown that the symptoms of grief are different from symptoms of depression among bereaved family members. This study is an attempt to replicate this finding among advanced cancer patients and examine clinical correlates of patient grief and depression. Analyses were conducted on data from interviews with 123 advanced cancer…

The first major revision of the "ACA Code of Ethics" in a decade occurred in late 2005, with the updated edition containing important new mandates and imperatives. This article provides interviews with members of the Ethics Revision Task Force that flesh out seminal changes in the revised "ACA Code of Ethics" in the areas of confidentiality,…

Purpose: To identify differences in perspectives that may complicate the process of joint decision making at the end of life, this study determined the agreement of family and staff perspectives about end-of-life experiences in nursing homes and residential care/assisted living communities and whether family and staff roles, involvement in care,…

This study used retrospective interviews with 87 relatives to describe the experiences of patients who died by euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (EAS) in the Netherlands. Most of the patients suffered from cancer (85%). The relatives were most often a partner (63%) or a child (28%) of the patient. Before explicitly requesting EAS most…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe good quality care at the end of life (EOL) for hospice-enrolled residents in assisted living facilities (ALFs). Design and Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used to obtain detailed descriptions of EOL care provided by ALF medication aides, caregivers, nurses, and hospice nurses in…

Purpose: Given concerns about end-of-life care for many nursing home (NH) residents, this study sought to understand factors influencing hospice referral or nonreferral as well as timing of referral. Design and Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with personnel from seven participating NHs and two hospices. We interviewed NH directors…

Deciding for or against a life-prolonging treatment represents a choice between prolonged life and death. When the death alternative is not described, individuals must supply their own assumptions. How do people imagine the experience of dying? The authors asked 40 elderly people open-ended questions about dying without 4 common life-prolonging…

Purpose: This study explored the psychosocial dynamics of short hospice stays (less than 2 weeks) of cancer patients age 65 and older. Design and Methods: In-depth interviews with 59 caregivers of 50 patients were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded by using Atlas ti software. Results: A descriptive typology is presented. A late diagnosis (n = 22…