Purpose: Almost half of people age 85 and older who die annually in the United States die as nursing home residents, yet because it is not always clear who is close to death, not all residents who might benefit from end-of-life care receive it. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for organizing social interactions related to…

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,…

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: We designed this study to examine the end-of-life (EOL) experience in long-term care (LTC) based on input from key stakeholders. Design and Methods: The study consisted of 10 homogeneous focus groups drawn from a purposive sample of LTC residents (2 groups; total n = 11), family caregivers (2 groups; total n = 19), paraprofessional staff…

Developed Hospice Caregiver Assessment Inventory to identify problems of those caring for dying patients, and Caregiver Intervention Plan. Analysis of 24 inventories and assessment plans identified problems of caregivers of dying older people. Results suggest that caregivers often need counseling assistance prior to death of patient, as well as…

Examined circumstances in the last 3 days of life for a sample of 1,227 elderly decedents. Interviews were with a surviving next-of-kin or a nonrelative about three months after the event of death. Around 34% of the decedents knew that death was impending, while about 40% had difficulty recognizing family members. (RJM)