| [ Summary ] |
The purpose of this article is to describe attitudes toward end of life in hemodialysis patients by using a qualitative and quantitative survey. The results were summarized as follows; 1) 31% of the patients had not thought about their terminal care. They may have tried to avoid thinking about terminal care to avoid their fear of death. 2) The reasons why the patients had not talked about terminal care to their families were related to factors such as avoidance of conflict with their family's decisions concerning terminal care, an inclinationto entrust decision related to terminal care to family members, and feeling of powerlessness that arose from noncompliance with decisions made by their families. 3) In relation to hemodialysis in the end stages of dementia or cancer, those respondents who answered 'withholding', 'keeping', or 'don't know' accounted for almost equal percentages of those surveyed. The choice of whether or not to with hold hemodialysis was related to theability to reduce the burdens on their families interms of providing care. |