Nursing discharge summaries of deceased patients with respiratory diseases.
To explore how nurses feel about deceased patients and end-of-life care, the nursing discharge summaries of 115 sequential patients who died in the respiratory division of a Japanese university hospital were reviewed. When compared to discharge summaries of patients with non-malignant illness, a significantly higher percentage of discharge summaries of those with malignant illnesses documented support from family members (P = 0.0166), patient's hope for cure (P = 0.0206), and patient anxiety (P = 0.0258). As difficult situations stay with nurses as memories, it is important for both new graduates and skilled nurses to document their feelings in difficult clinical situations.
Akazawa
Yoko
Y
Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Nursing, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba Hospital, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.
Satoh
Hiroaki
H
Takiguchi
Kazuyo
K
Yamashita
Yuko T
YT
Sekizawa
Kiyohisa
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D004282:Documentation / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008875:Middle Aged; D009737:Nursing Records; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010351:Patient Discharge; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000401:mortality*