A Study on Caregivers’ Care Experience Who Underwent Death of Elderly with Dementia in Nursing Facilities

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the essential meaning of caregivers’ care experience who underwent death of elderly with dementia in nursing facilities. A phenomenological study was carried out with Colaizzi's analytical method. Participants were selected by using reputational case selection, and the study was carried out by supplementing the snowball sampling method of five caregivers who had experience of caring for elderly with dementia in a nursing home. As a result of this study, there were four categories with a group of 30 themes and 10 groups derived from common statements of participants. They felt sorry for the death and painful time of elderly with dementia in ‘unfamiliar institutional life’. On the other hand, when they encountered sudden symptoms of dementia, they suffered double pain as ‘victims and sometimes secret abusers’. However, they did not stop at the perception of ‘perpetrator and victim’ in the crisis of care and discovered that the frail and fragile elderly with dementia were ‘dignified beings who stayed there’.