title: Home care nurses' provision of support to families of the elderly at the end of life.
abstract: In this article we describe our study of assistance for family decisions and caregiving by Japanese home care nurses to families of elderly relatives at the end of life. The participants were 31 nurses who had been evaluated as providing good end-of-life care. We carried out semistructured interviews concerning the practice of family support in two cases (cancer and noncancer). We conducted a qualitative analysis using the constant comparative approach and derived several categories inductively. Home care nurses are responsible for (a) estimating the possibility of dying at home, (b) visualizing what is coming and what can be done, (c) proposing where and how the family can say goodbye, (d) building family consensus, (e) coordinating resources, and (f) offering psychological support for end-of-life care. End-of-life family care by home care nurses is a process in which multiple components of care are provided with changing content as death approaches.
authors.affiliation: University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ward, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamamoto-Mitani
authors.forename: Mari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Shiho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takemori
authors.forename: Masayo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
authors.forename: Izumi
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Noa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miyata
authors.forename: Mari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kimata
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukahori
authors.forename: Masako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamada
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D004645:Empathy; D022143:Family Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological