The Gerontologist
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Review Multicenter Study
The experience of dying: an ethnographic nursing home study.
This article reviews the literature on "The Experience of Dying" and presents data from a larger, ongoing study of an ethnography of dying in nursing homes. The purpose of the ethnographic study was to investigate the process of providing end-of-life care to residents who were dying in nursing homes. ⋯ Future research is needed on: The experience of dying for patients with dementia, for people in a comatose state, and for non-English speaking patients; symptom management; health care provider/patient-family interaction; the burden of caregiving for families; and the consequences of the constraints within our health care system for people who are dying in various settings.