Abstract
Increasingly in kidney treatment we confront the need of caring for the end-of-life stage patients after years of dialysis. In the present study, we examine the characteristics of care for the end-of-life dialysis patients, and offer a proposal that, over a long period of the patient's undergoing treatment, it is desirable for medical staff to understand each patient's will and its changes. Furthermore, medical staff, especially nurses, need to cooperate with the patient and his/her family to help the patient to come up with the patient's will for his/her own end of life. Nurses, who have been caring for the patient for a long period through the initiation of dialysis, its continuance, and the end-of-life stage, are likely to play an important role as mediators between physicians and patients and therefore should prepare for that role.
