How nursing home staff deal with residents who talk about death

Aims.  The overall aim of this study was to gain knowledge about how nursing staff treat and communicate with residents who talk about death and about their reasons for their treatment as well as to investigate how staff explain residents’ reasons for talking about death. Background.  Studies have established that nursing staff have problems in dealing with patients who talk about death and that staff do not know how they should relate to talking about death. Method.  A qualitative explorative design. Interviews with staff were performed and analysed using a qualitative content analysis. Findings.  Staff descriptions of their various ways of dealing with a situation in which residents talk about death could be divided into two qualitatively different main categories: ‘allow and facilitate talk about death’ and ‘avoid talk about death’. The most common explanation provided by staff in all categories was that they acted the way they did because they did not know how to address discussions about death. Staff members’ descriptions of residents’ reasons for talking about death were quite different. Conclusions.  The study indicates that nursing staff need to reflect on their own attitudes towards death and that they need to develop further. Their behaviour may depend on each staff member’s individual attitudes and development. Nursing staff need training in and knowledge about how to communicate with residents who talk about death. This knowledge could be acquired through training, guidance and joint reflection in groups.