The aim of this study was to elucidate the thoughts of nurses working at hospitals about the therapies for elderly patients who were admitted because were likely to die due to senility. To this end, a questionnaire survey was administered to 97nurses working at three hospitals, who had participated in a workshop, and 49 valid responses were obtained. As a result, the following four categories were extracted: “supporting death with dignity,” “decision support in a non-uniform end-of-life care,” “practice of care according to the intentions of a patient and his/her family,” and “conflict over the selection of a remedy, without performing any therapy.” Nurses wanted to support a death with dignity and a natural death due to senility. However, there were problems that nurses could not control, such as the level of therapy, and the directions for end-of-life care under the conditions of senility were uncertain. Therefore, it was considered necessary to examine end-of-life care strategies for elderly patients.
