Background: End of life decisions for people with advanced dementia are reported as often being difficult for families as they attempt to make appropriate and justified decisions.
Aim: To explore the experiences of advance care planning amongst family caregivers of people with advanced dementia.
Design: Qualitative research including a series of single cases (close family relatives).
Methods: A purposive sample of 12 family caregivers within a specialist dementia unit was interviewed about their experiences of advance care planning between August 2009 and February 2010.
Results/findings: Family caregivers need encouragement to ask the right questions during advance care planning to discuss the appropriateness of nursing and medical interventions at the end of life.
Conclusions: Advance care planning can be facilitated with the family caregiver in the context of everyday practice within the nursing home environment for older people with dementia.
Keywords: advance care planning; dementia; end of life care; family caregivers; nursing home.
© The Author(s) 2014.