[Admission to a ward for terminal care as a status passage]

In the last few years clinics exclusively for patients suffering from AIDS have been developed in Switzerland, specialising in terminal care. The institution in which the research here reported was carried out, admitted drug-dependent patients with AIDS. Admission to the unit, henceforth referred to as unit for the dying, is a very special event, which triggers off a variety of behavioural manifestations. The research shows that it is a case of 'status passage' as described by Glaser and Strauss (1971), which is experienced differently by each individual. In spite of individual differences, similar conditions, similar factors, which influence patients, similar coping mechanisms were observed. To end the paper, concrete suggestions are offered for the care of drug dependent patients suffering from AIDS, suggestions at the level of individual nurses, of the nursing profession and of the structure of the organisation.