End-of-Life decision making for nursing home residents with dementia: a survey of nursing home social services staff.

The purpose of this survey was to describe nursing home social services staff roles and perceptions related to end-of-life medical decision making for nursing home residents in endstage dementia. Using a self-designed questionnaire, 138 nursing home social services staff from across New York State answered questions about advance directives, medical interventions, and comfort levels with withholding and withdrawing of treatment. Results showed a high degree of involvement in advance directive discussions, problems in the implementation of advance directives, and wide variation in comfort levels with treatment issues. Results of this study indicate areas of need for further research and training of nursing home social services staff.