IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v380y2025ics0277953625005830.html

Caring at the end of life: Bereaved family members' experiences of preparedness, readiness, and anticipation fatigue

Author

Listed:
  • MacArthur, Nathan D.
  • Kirby, Emma
  • Mowll, Jane

Abstract

Ensuring patient and family members' preparedness for dying is a key focus for palliative care. This article draws on the retrospective accounts of bereaved adult family members' experiences of anticipation and preparedness following a death in palliative or residential aged care. Participants completed in-depth interviews (n = 36). A constructivist grounded theory approach guided data collection and analysis, through which the complexities of engaging in preparedness whilst navigating questions of how to care well emerged. We propose the concept of anticipation fatigue as a means by which to understand the impacts of holding multiple, sometimes contradictory, positions in the pursuit of ‘good’ care at end of life. These results deepen our understandings of the impacts of caring-in-anticipation and offer insights for improving support to families receiving palliative care.

Suggested Citation

  • MacArthur, Nathan D. & Kirby, Emma & Mowll, Jane, 2025. "Caring at the end of life: Bereaved family members' experiences of preparedness, readiness, and anticipation fatigue," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:380:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625005830
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625005830
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118252?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Treml, Julia & Schmidt, Viktoria & Nagl, Michaela & Kersting, Anette, 2021. "Pre-loss grief and preparedness for death among caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    2. Olson, Rebecca E. & Smith, Alexandra & Good, Phillip & Neate, Emily & Hughes, Cody & Hardy, Janet, 2021. "Emotionally reflexive labour in end-of-life communication," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    3. Kirby, Emma & Broom, Alex & MacArtney, John & Lewis, Sophie & Good, Phillip, 2021. "Hopeful dying? The meanings and practice of hope in palliative care family meetings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dellenborg, Lisen & Enstedt, Daniel, 2023. "Balancing hope at the end of life organisational conditions for spiritual care in palliative homecare in Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    2. Boelsbjerg, Hanne Bess & Blond, Niklas & Høybye, Mette Terp, 2026. "Narrating hope among relatives to patients with disorders of consciousness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:380:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625005830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.