[Desired place of death, living will and desired care at end of life: initial results of a survey of nursing home residents]. / Gewünschter Sterbeort, Patientenverfügungen und Versorgungswünsche am Lebensende: erste Ergebnisse einer Befragung von Pflegeheimbewohnern.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is little information about the desired place of death of nursing home residents because they are usually not interviewed in population-based representative surveys. In preparation of support services for advance care planning the kind of care and support that nursing home residents desire needs to be systematically determined. METHOD: From October 2016 to January 2017 the residents of 5 nursing homes, municipally owned by Würzburg, were interviewed face-to-face. RESULTS: Of the residents 42.7% could not be interviewed due to cognitive limitations or dementia. The legal guardians of 63 residents declined participation in the study and 68 residents took part in the survey. Of the respondents 43 stated they wanted to pass away in the nursing home (63.2%). If interviewees had a person of trust or felt at home there, the number of those wanting to pass away in a nursing home was significantly higher. A total of 25 interviewees had either a living will, power of attorney for care, or a health care proxy (36.7%) and 55.3% had informed a person of trust in the nursing home about their desired care, usually a nurse (52.8%) or co-resident (36.1%). A total of 50.0% of respondents had informed their general practitioner and 23.5% had not spoken to anyone about their desired care. Especially nurses were specifically mentioned as the appropriate contact person to record desired care (70.4%). DISCUSSION: Residents view their nursing home as the place for dying in a much more positive light compared to frequent discussions contrasting population surveys and actual places of death. End of life prearrangements should be designed as a dynamic process that include persons of trust, nurses and general practitioners.