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Updated: Jan 5, 2026

Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
Nurses defending the autonomy of the elderly at the end of life
Rafael Barroso Gaspar1, Marcelle Miranda da Silva1, Karen Gisela Moraes Zepeda1
1Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Objective:
to understand how nurses deal with the elderly's autonomy at the end of life.
Method:
qualitative, exploratory study, guided by the Grounded Theory. Ten nurses, eight doctors and 15 nursing technicians were interviewed between November 2016 and May 2017 at a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil.
Results:
nurses deal with the elderly's autonomy in compliance with the code of ethics and exercise leadership in actions and interactions to defend this right, evaluating, guiding and listening to the preferences of the elderly; interacting with the family; and sharing information with the health team.
Final Considerations:
the elderly's autonomy must be ensured in care planning, based on patient-centered communication and developed in the interaction among agents involved in care. The discussion on "Living Wills" Health Care Directives and principles of palliative care must be encouraged.
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