Copyright © 2017 Abdul-Monim Batiha et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Adult Nursing Journal, 1 (1) (2017) 1-8 Adult Nursing Journal Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/ANJ doi: 10.14419/anj.v1i1.8734 Review Paper End of life care: literature review Abdul-Moni m Batiha 1 *, Ahmad Saifan 2 , Ibrahim Bashayreh 1 , Falastine Hamdan 3 , Intima Alrimawi 4 , Kholoud Abu Obead 5 , Muwfag Al-Momani 6 , Saleh Moh’d Daradkeh 7 , Sa'd Albashtawy 8 , Bayan Albashtawy 8 , Fadwa Alhalaiqa 1 1 Philadelphia University, Faculty of Nursing, Jordan. 2 School of Nursing, Fatima College for Health Sciences, UAE 3 Al-Balqa University, Jordan 4 School of Nursing, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine 5 Faculty of Nursing, Jordan University of science and technology 6 Faculty of Nursing, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University 7 Ministry of Health, Jordan 8 Faculty of medicine, Hashemite University, Jordan *Corresponding author E-mail: abatiha@gmail.com Abstract M ost of the literature failed to give an exact meaning for the end-of-life or the end-of-life care. However, there are some authors tried to give a brief description of this term. These two descriptions seem vague and general. Finding an exact or comprehensive definition of end-of-life care seems very difficult. Findings from the reviewed studies in this study provide overlapping views and perceptions regarding the expected outcomes of allowing family-witnessed resuscitation (FWR). For family members, the majority of the reviewed studies show that family members would like to attend their loved ones’ CPR. M any of them stated that this is one of their rights. For patients, most of them thought that FWR is con- venient and would support the resuscitated patient. However, a few patients expressed concerns regarding the effect of this p resence on health professionals’ performance, and then the effect on the resuscitated patient. FWR was debatable in studies that assesse d health pro- fessionals’ attitudes and beliefs regarding this subject. There were several studies that showed that FWR woul d result in valuable benefits for family members, patients, and health professionals. However, many studies raised concerns regarding this presentation, such as the psychological effect of this presence on family members, the extra stress that might result on health professionals, and the legal litigation which might arise from this presence. Keywords: Attachment; Care; Death; End of Life; Grieving; Literature Review; Social Factors. 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview of the end of life care There is a significant difference between death in the past and the death in current times. Carlet et al (2004) indicated that death was usually a private incident, spiritual or religious, including a collec- tion of family members and friends around the victim. Yet, the picture of death is changed, as it becomes a subject with public interest and there are many technological procedures are added to prevent or to facilitate death (Carlet et al, 2004; ALBashtawy et al., 2017; Al Azzam et al., 2017). Providing end of life care for patients and their relatives has been widely discussed in the last two to three decades. This might result from several reasons. One of these reasons is the movement from concentrating on the purely medical perspective to a more comprehensive caring perspective. For example, Timmermans (1997) indicated that the period of the early 1970s included shifting from focusing on purely biomedical ‘survival perspective’ towards a ‘dual perspective’. This includes that care is focused on the saving lives and improving medical identities, and taking care of the family and improving multiple social identities. Supporting life procedures and the advanced technologies that were added to the treatment process contributes in increasing the severity of illness of hospitalized patients (Carlet et al, 2004; Alazzam et al., 2017; Alhalaiqa et al., 2017). Most importantly, in the healthcare environment, today, patients and their relatives expect to be involved in the treatment process and they also expect to participate in making the caring decision (Boehm, 2008; Alrimawi et al., 2017; Freij et al., 2017). Most of the literature failed to give an exact meaning for the end- of-life or the end-of-life care. However, there are some authors tried to give a brief description of this term. These two descrip- tions seem vague and general. Finding an exact or comprehensive definition of end-of-life care seems very difficult. Chapple (1999) particularly described the end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU). Chapple pointed out that there are no specific procedures or steps to be followed when providing end-of-life care. This, according to Chapple, makes it difficult to evaluate the effective- ness of any end of life programs. However, talking about end-of- life and death and open discussions about these issues could lead to developing guidance for healthcare professionals to present good quality of end-of-life care (Kuhl, 2002; Alhalaiqaet al., 2016; ALBashtawy, et al., 2016). Implementing end-of-life care is also different depending on sev- eral factors such as the patients’ conditions and the departments.