Caregivers' experiences of end-of- life caregiving to severely ill relatives with cancer dying at home: A qualitative study in the Faroe Islands

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Abstract

Background and Aim: It is common among people with advanced cancer to wish
to die at home, but only a few succeed in doing so. The willingness of family mem-
bers to care for a person, who wants to die at home, is crucial This qualitative study
aimed to provide insight into conditions that make dying at home possible in a small-
scale society and to describe family caregivers' experiences of providing end-of- life
care in a private home setting.
Methods: Thirteen caregivers were interviewed, their ages varying from 39 to
84 years. A phenomenological approach, inspired by Giorgi, was applied.
Results: Two essential structures captured the experience of caring at home until
death: ‘Managing end-of-life care’ and ‘meaningfulness in a time of impending
death’. It was mainly the family, and especially family members with a healthcare
background, together with the district nurses, who supported the caregivers in man-
aging the care of a dying relative at home. Being able to fulfil their relative's wish to
die at home and to come closer together as a family made the caregivers feel their
efforts meaningful.
Conclusion: Our findings point to the importance of having access to home care day
and night for the caregivers to feel secure during the night-time. As of now, this is
only an option in larger towns in the Faroe Islands, which might also be the case in
outskirts areas in other countries. Our findings also showed an unmet need for sup-
port to ease the mental load on caregivers. Establishing an outgoing interdisciplinary
palliative team would help to increase the number of people who want to die at home
and succeed in doing so by giving the caregivers emotional and advisory support
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages9
JournalScandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences
Publication statusPublished - 21 Mar 2023

Keywords

  • end-of-life care
  • home death
  • palliative care
  • phenomology
  • relatives

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