This study sought to identify and analyze the significance of the process of dying for family caregivers of elderly patients in palliative care. It involved qualitative research with the use of interviews. The data were scrutinized by content analysis. The presence of chronic diseases that lead the elderly patient to require palliative care imposes a series of complex and ambivalent feelings on the family caregiver. The proximity and inevitability of death of the elderly patient exacerbate these feelings, but also lead the caregiver to reconsider how to handle this experience. Given this complexity, it becomes clear that the palliative tem need to work with family caregivers, to try to alleviate this situation.
Death; Family; Elderly; Palliative care