2013 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 56-63
The purpose of this study was to clarify the signs sensed by the nurses from the elderly who are going to die, and the timing of those signs in special nursing homes for the elderly (called 'nursing home' hereafter) that actively strive to give end-of-life care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on eight nurses working in nursing homes, and the data were analyzed qualitatively using content analysis. Nineteen signs by which nurses predicted that the elderly death was nearing were categorized. Fourteen categories such as "lack of eye strength", "losing of persistence to live", "skin becoming fair" were observed one month before elderly death. Five categories such as "change of respiratory condition", "appearance of edema" were observed about two days before an elderly death. This study may suggest the importance for nurses to predict the elderly's death by two-phase signs and to provide and coordinate appropriate care for the elderly in order to enhance the end-of-life care in nursing homes.
