“Caring as if it were my family”: Health care aides' perspectives about expert care of the dying resident in a personal care home

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: A qualitative pilot study was conducted to identify and describe expert behaviors in care of the dying resident in a personal care home setting from the perspective of health care aides (N = 5) nominated by their peers as demonstrating excellence in end-of-life care. METHODS: Data was collected through audio-taped semi-structured interview, and transcribed verbatim using constant-comparative analysis procedures. RESULTS: The over-arching theme emerging from the data was "caring as if it were my family." Subsumed within this main theme included the sub-themes of: (1) care of the resident; (2) tending to the environment; (3) care of the family; (4) going to bat; and (5) processing loss. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The findings from this pilot study provide preliminary empirical evidence that could inform educational programs for and performance evaluation of, health care aides providing end-of-life care in personal care home environments.