The aim of this study was to illuminate nurse assistants鈥?experience of palliative care for older people in residential care.
The study had an explorative, descriptive design.
Thirteen residential care units in three different districts in a large city in southern Sweden.
Twenty-five nurse assistants selected to represent variations in age, gender workplace and work experience.
Data were collected from six focus-group interviews and subjected to content analysis to gain an understanding of the phenomenon.
The nurse assistants described palliative care as a contrast to the everyday care they performed in that they had a legitimate possibility to provide the care needed and a clear assignment in relation to relatives. Palliative care also meant having to face death and dying while feeling simultaneous that it was unnatural to talk about death and having to deal with their own emotions. They emphasised that they were in need of support and experienced leadership as invisible and opaque, but gained strength from being recognized.
In order to support nurse assistants in providing high quality end-of-life care, more focus is needed on the trajectory of older peoples鈥?dying, on the importance of involving relatives throughout the period of care provision, and on support when encountering death and dying. There is also a need for engaged care leaders, both registered nurses and managers, to recognize the work of nurse assistants and to support care provision for older people within the framework of palliative care philosophy.