Contradictions between elders' end-of-life decisions and family members' perceptions of elders' wishes

Abstract

Differences exist between what the elders wish for their end-of-life decisions and what their family members perceive the elders want. This study sought to gain information on the differences that occur between the elders and their family members. A quantitative descriptive study described the differences between selected aspects of clinical decision making in end-of-life decisions between the elderly and their familys' perceptions of the elder's wishes. Included were 39 elders and 39 family members. Results indicated a statistically significant difference between elders' end-of-life decisions and their family members' perceptions of the elder's wishes. Results also indicated that there were no differences between the elders and family members when the elders had a living will. However, results indicated that there were differences between the elders and family members when the elders had verbally communicated their wishes to the family members. Implications are: 1) a need for nurses to be educated to the differences that exist between elders' wishes and their family members' perceptions of the elders; wishes, (2) a need for a detailed end-of-life tool to gather information about elders' decisions, (3) an education process to increase the public's knowledge of the issues that cause differences between elders and family members concerning elders' end-of-life decisions, and (4) further research is needed to understand the complexity of elders' end-of-life decision making.