Forschung & Innovation
Publikationen
The liminal phase of relatives at the end-of-life of a loved one – an integrative review
PMU Autor*innen
Carola Walter, Margitta B. Beil-Hildebrand
Alle Autor*innen
Carola Walter, Margitta B. Beil-Hildebrand
Kurzfassung
Objective: Shared housing arrangements (SHA) are an innovative living form for care-dependent people. The involvement of relatives is part of daily living (1). As SHA are places to live and to die, palliative care plays a pivotal role in this setting (2). Relatives themselves go through a liminal phase in the last phase of their loved one's life, which is barely part of recent studies even if family involvement is described (2).
Methods: An integrative review was chosen to explore relatives' experiences in their liminal phase. The databases screened were PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Articles had to be published between 2010 and 2021. No restriction was made to the research design. Analysis of the articles followed predefined categories. The review will be updated for the “Science get together 2025”.
Results: Eight articles were included in the review. The settings ranged from long-term care facilities to homebased 24-hour care. The main themes extracted were relatives’ needs, communication, information, advocacy, and collaboration. Two studies summarized the results in conceptual models of relatives' experiences in end-of-life care.
Conclusion: The collaboration and the resulting adaptation processes in the interaction between relatives and nursing staff in these settings should be explored to improve the integration of relatives in end-of-life care and support them in this liminal phase.
References
1. Brouwers M, Broekharst DSE, de Boer B, Groen WG, Verbeek H. An overview of innovative living arrangements within long-term care and their characteristics: a scoping review. BMC Geriatr. 2023;23:442.
2. Degraves BS, Meijers JMM, Estabrooks CA, Verbeek H. Palliative care in small-scale living facilities: a
scoping review. BMC Geriatr. 2024;24
Keywords
End-of-life, Nursing, relatives