Home-visit Nursing Support for Families of Elderly Living Alone at the End of Life:

A Literature Review

Abstract

Family support is an important part of home care, and home-visit nursing provides family support even when family members are not available during nurses’ home visits. The present study aimed to explore the contents of support provided by home-visit nurses for family members of older individuals living alone at the end of life. We searched the databases of the online edition of Japana centra revuo medicina. The keywords used were “family support,” “end-of-life,” “living alone”, and “home-visit nursing”. We identified 8 articles. The nine categories of family support were extracted, including “Emotional support,” “Support for families to accept death at home,” “Advice on how the family can support the patient, taking the family’s circumstances into consideration,” “Assistance in mediating between family and physician,” “Assistance in representing the patient’s wishes and appreciation to the family,” “Assistance in communicating the patient’s situation to family members,” and “Support for strengthening family bonding.” The present findings suggest that home-visit nurses provide multifaceted support to family members who do not live with older individuals.