Purpose: This study was designed to provide qualitative data to explore the nurses' experience of caring for elders
who are dying. Methods: Data were collected from ten nurses who had experiences in nursing elders who were
dying and receiving care in long term care facilities in Korea. Analysis of data was done by conventional content
analysis. Results: In this study, 8 essential themes were extracted; 'beginning of dying with uncertainty', 'approaching
death in daily life', 'effort for medical intervention', 'arranging the last meeting with significant others', 'becoming
elder's family member inside who shared elder's life', 'rumination about the situation of elders' dying and accumulated
experience, 'empirical understanding and coping with human death', 'results depends on nurses‘role'
Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that nursing care manuals and prediction tools regarding end-of-life
care for elders need to be developed and preparation of advance directives for elders in the long-term care settings
should be required.