Abstract
The purpose of this study was to describe what families experience and how they discover the meaning of life when a member with a poor prognosis is treated a hospice outpatient clinic. Each of the families participated in unstructured interviews and all data were analyzed by the qualitative method based on a phenomenological approach. The following results were obtained by typology. Hospice outpatient families experienced confusion at the changes the patient's illness brought to their lives and felt limited in their ability to help the sufferer. Faced with an unavoidable fate, they could only grope for answers to their questions. Moreover, the decisions and judgments the families had to make as a result of the rapid worsening of the illness caused them intense difficulties. The need for daily care for a patient with no hope for the future brought about conflict and remorse in the family-patient relationship. However, the changes in the patient's condition made the family aware that time together was running out, and this fostered an awareness of their role in the patient's terminal care. Simultaneously, for the family, meaning of meals for the patient increased in importance, adding a sense of joy in feeding and helping to prolong his or her life. In addition, in the midst of their time together came the realization that the patient's terminal care would fall to them.
