Nursing diagnosis of terminal syndrome in elderly with advanced dementia: Cross mapping

Abstract

Objective: to identify elements of Terminal Syndrome by cross-referencing terms recorded by nurses providing end-of-life care for elderly people with advanced dementia. Method: in this retrospective, observational study, using a cross-mapping methodological tool, records of the last 10 days of life were collected from 38 medical records of people with advanced dementia. Results: 97 human-response terms were identified, and by cross-mapping, 22 nursing diagnoses were listed; of these, 11 nursing diagnoses displayed statistical importance in 50% or more of the patients, while eight nursing diagnoses were statistically important when assessed by prevalence in the 380 observations. Terminal Syndrome was found in all 380 evaluations, averaging 7.5 diagnoses of the syndrome. Cases were observed Conclusion: the high prevalence of Terminal Syndrome supports the inclusion of this nursing diagnosis in the NANDA-I Taxonomy II, as nurses already observe and record in practice.