Food and eating are embedded in people's everyday social lives: at home with family members and as part of social interactions. For people with progressive life-limiting conditions, however, eating is often obstructed. The objective of the present study was to explore the meanings of living with eating deficiencies at the end of life among people admitted to specialist palliative home care.

This qualitative inductive study employed an interpretive descriptive approach. A dozen persons, with various diagnoses and eating deficiencies, admitted to two specialist palliative home care units, participated. Data were collected through individual repeated interviews. Data collection and analysis were guided by the interpretive description method.

The results reveal that eating deficiencies among people with progressive life-limiting conditions are existentially loaded markers of impending death. Finding ways to overcome declined food intake and hampered eating enabled our participants to feel able to influence their own well-being and remain hopeful. The results also showed that the eating deficiencies influenced participants' relationships and social interactions in ways that hampered their possibilities of sharing valuable moments together with friends and family members during the final period of life.

Efforts to minimize the distress that people experience in relation to the challenges they face with eating deficiencies are important for well-being at the end of life. Person-centered approaches to acknowledge and support individuals' own ways of experiencing and dealing with their eating deficiencies are recommended that include a multidimensional perspective on food and eating.

Aims and objectives: To explore partners’ experiences of everyday life in caring for a dying person with eating deficiencies at home.

Background: When a dying person receives care at home, eating deficiencies can influence everyday life for family members, who often take responsibility for the provision of food and meals. The literature reveals this to be emotionally stressful. Partners of dying persons are challenged both as caregivers and as partners who will soon lose their life companion. There is a need for studies that provide enhanced understanding about the influence of dying persons’ eating deficiencies on their partners, from the perspective of everyday life.

Design: A qualitative design was chosen to obtain experience-based knowledge of relevance for the clinical context of palliative home care.

Methods: Nine people were purposefully selected and interviewed three–six months after the death of their partner. Data collection and analysis were guided by an interpretive descriptive method.

Results: The partners described experiences of how eating deficiencies brought about changes in the participants’ everyday lives. Two patterns of experiences were identified: the challenge of doing the best for their dying partner around matters involving food and mealtimes, and experiences of striving to maintain ordinariness, including holding on to social values around food, despite experiences of unfamiliarity when the dying partners’ habits were changed.

Conclusion:Living close to a person who has eating deficiencies at the end of life is challenging, both from a caring perspective and for personal well-being.

Relevance to clinical practice: The findings can assist palliative home care teams and other healthcare professionals to give support that goes beyond giving practical advice about food. Initiating talk about the current situation around food and meals at home, by posing questions and opening the way for conversations, is suggested.

Aim: To describe and synthesise experiences of food and mealtimes from the perspective of patients with chronic life-limiting disease.

Design: A mixed-method systematic review.

Data sources: The databases Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Nursing and Allied Health Database, PsycINFO, PubMed, Soc Index and Web of Science Core Collection were searched (January 2000 to March 2019).

Review methods: Out of 3151 identified articles, 24 were included for appraisal and synthesis, using a data based convergent design.

Results: Four themes were derived: 'understanding hampered eating-perhaps it is best to let nature run its course'; 'food and meals evoke distress-reducing joy, testing interim ways'; 'struggling with food and meals-eating to please others and to postpone death'; and 'food and meals as caring and love-flanked by social disconnecting'.

Conclusion: For patients with chronic life-limiting disease, food entailed potential to remain healthy, improve well-being and prolong life. Meanwhile, eating difficulties were experienced as fundamentally affecting social life and interactions; consequently, joy around food and meals was lost.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim was to explore RNs' experiences of caring for patients with eating deficiencies in palliative care.

BACKGROUND: Food and mealtimes are fundamental aspects for wellbeing and social interactions. The worldwide trajectory of ageing populations may result in increased need for palliative care. Everyday life with chronic life limiting illness and eating deficiencies is challenging for patients and families. RNs are key care providers at end-of-life.

DESIGN: A qualitative study with an inductive approach was used.

METHODS: Nineteen experienced RNs in palliative care were interviewed through telephone; interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive qualitative content analysis was performed, and the COREQ checklist was used to guide proceedings.

RESULTS: The overarching theme, Supporting persons with eating deficiencies in-between palliative care and end-of-life care, is represented by three sub-themes: Easy to stick with doing, Just being, without doing, is hard and Letting go. Near end-of-life, eating symbolized social belonging and quality of life for RNs, whereas for patients and families, eating symbolized life. RNs tried practical solutions, however, not always according to patients' and families' preferences.

CONCLUSIONS: RNs were well prepared to tackle physical inconveniences and provide support, however, less prepared to encounter existential, psychological and social issues in relation to eating deficiencies. Although RNs stated that human beings stop eating when they are about to die, letting nature run its' course and facilitating patients' transition to end-of-life care was challenging.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Food and mealtimes represent fundamental aspects of human life and denote central parts in RNs clinical practice in palliative care. The findings can inspire development of a comprehensive palliative care approach to support patients and families. Structured reflection in relation to clinical practice may support and encourage RNs, caring for patients with eating deficiencies, in mastering both doing and being.