"Caring as if it were my family": health care aides' perspectives about expert care of the dying resident in a personal care home.

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.