Survey of Bereavement Care Provided by Home-Visit Nurses for Bereaved Families in Japan

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the implementation conditions of bereavement care for bereaved families and the relationship between demographics of home-visit nurses and rates of provision of bereavement care. Methods: A self-rating anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted with 2200 facilities randomly selected from among the members of the Home-visit Nursing Stations of the National Nursing Business Association. Calculating the rates of provision of each pre-and post-bereavement care item of the survey, we performed a multiple logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between the demographics of home-visit nurses and rates of provision of care. Statistical processing employed SPSS ver. 21.0 with the significance level set at 5%. Results: A total of 688 responses were collected (collection rate, 31.3%), and 649 were included in the analysis. "Approval of the care that the family has provided" and "Involvement in the care together with the family and listening to their thoughts" were frequently provided in both pre-and post-bereavement care; however, the rate of provision of "Provided continued support/life planning until the family fully recovers social life" was low. More care services were provided by home-visit nurses working in facilities with 24-hour services in pre-bereavement, and by those with longer homevisit nursing experience in post-bereavement. Conclusions: Home-visit nurses provide many post-bereavement care services. However, continued care that helps bereaved families fully recover their social life, including life planning, is less frequently provided. Bereavement care provision rates vary depending on the facility type, whether the facility offers 24-hour services, and the length of home-visit nursing experience.