AimTo explore assistant nurses' experiences and perceptions of both positive and negative aspects of providing palliative care for older people in residential care facilities.DesignA qualitative explorative study.MethodsCritical incidents were collected through semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews and analysed by performing a qualitative content analysis.ResultsA total of 40 critical incidents from daily work was described by assistant nurses. The results showed that close cooperation between unlicensed and licensed professionals was crucial to provide good care but was sometimes negatively affected by the organizational structure. The availability of professionals was identified as a critical factor in providing good care at the end of life in a consultative organization. The most prominent findings were those that indicated that, especially in a consultative organization, there seems to be a need for clear roles, comprehensive and clear care plans and a solid support structure to ensure continuity of care.

their family members living under the same roof. However, that has gradually become more difficult. We decided to clarify the relationship between the mental health of elderly patients with terminal cancer and family care. Methods: We studied patients with terminal cancer aged 65 or older that were cared by their family members. Through anonymous self-administered questionnaires, we examined the background of the study participants and their main caregivers and whether study participants were supported by their family members in terms of housekeeping, eating, excretion, cleanliness, movement, medical care, and finances. Mental health was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), which uses a 4stage Likert scale. We performed t-tests after confirming that GHQ-12 scores were normally distributed. This study was performed after approval by the Epidemiological Research Ethics Committee of University A and the ethics review committees of the participating facilities.