• Cayetano Fernández-Sola, José Granero-Molina, Díaz-CortésMaría Del MarMDMEmergency Department, Hospital Torrecárdenas, Almería, Spain.Department of Nursing Science, Physiotherapy and Medicine, University of Almeria, Almería, Spain., Francisca Rosa Jiménez-López, Pablo Roman-López, Encarnación Saez-Molina, Cayetano José Aranda-Torres, José María Muñoz-Terrón, María Paz García-Caro, and José Manuel Hernández-Padilla.
• Department of Nursing Science, Physiotherapy and Medicine, Research Group of Health Sciences CTS-451, University of Almeria, Almería, Spain.
• J Adv Nurs. 2018 Jun 1; 74 (6): 1392-1401.

AimsTo explore and understand the experiences of terminally ill patients and their relatives regarding dignity during end-of-life care in the emergency department.BackgroundThe respect given to the concept of dignity is significantly modifying the clinical relationship and the care framework involving the end-of-life patient in palliative care units, critical care units, hospices and their own homes. This situation is applicable to in-hospital emergency departments, where there is a lack of research which takes the experiences of end-of-life patients and their relatives into account.DesignA phenomenological qualitative study.MethodsThe protocol was approved in December 2016 and will be carried out from December 2016-December 2020. The Gadamer's philosophical underpinnings will be used in the design and development of the study. The data collection will include participant observation techniques in the emergency department, in-depth interviews with terminally ill patients and focus groups with their relatives. For the data analysis, the field notes and verbatim transcriptions will be read and codified using ATLAS.ti software to search for emerging themes.DiscussionEmerging themes that contribute to comprehending the phenomenon of dignity in end-of-life care in the emergency department are expected to be found. This study's results could have important implications in the implementation of new interventions in emergency departments. These interventions would be focused on improving: the social acceptance of death, environmental conditions, promotion of autonomy and accompaniment and assumption (takeover) of dignified actions and attitudes (respect for human rights).© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

27 keywords...

hide…