Behind each door you will find death: Institutionalized dying

Basic changes in our society and social system lead to a repression of old, frail and impaired people. They are increasingly institutionalized, and the issue of death and dying is delegated to experts. The present investigation describes the burden of routine care of dying people. "Mixed methodology" was used to obtain comprehensive and relevant data. General questions were deduced for the research subject based on qualitative interviews with 17 members of the nursing staff. These questions complete the questionnaire used to conduct the survey in 49 nursing homes. All kinds of occupational groups took part in the study. The quantitative data (n=894) were analyzed descriptively and proved for group differences with nonparametric methods. The results show that talking about the end of life with residents is difficult for almost a quarter of the participating persons. Nearly one third of the staff members tend to avoid the topic of death and dying when talking with relatives. High importance was attached to further interdisciplinary training in terminal. care. Working together with different occupational groups like hospice volunteers, chaplains, psychologists and caregivers is seen as a fruitful way and a possibility of increasing the quality of dying in nursing homes.