Relationship among death conferences, willingness and confidence in end-of-life care, and practice of grief care in Japanese home-visit nursing stations

This study aimed (1) to clarify the actual operation of death conferences in Japanese visiting nursing stations and (2) to clarify the relationship between death conferences and willingness and confidence for end-of-life care and the practice of grief care. We randomly selected 1522 facilities from 9557 visiting nursing stations nationwide registered as "providing 'end-of-life care' services" using the Long-Term Care Services Information Disclosure System. The number of selected facilities was determined according to the number of nursing stations visited in each prefecture. Request letters and survey forms were sent to the concerned facilities, and one nurse manager was asked to respond to these forms. Of the 1496 nursing stations that featured end-of-life care in Japan, we received responses from 247 individuals, making 220 valid responses. Of these, 113 facilities (51.4%) responded that they hold death conferences. Univariate analysis showed correlations between death conferences and willingness and confidence in end-of-life grief care practices. These results suggest that holding death conferences may increase nurses' confidence and willingness for end-of-life care and the practice of grief care.