Introduction:

The family caregiver of the elderly at the end of life is a subject that should be conceived as a focus of care, as it is not identified as theoretically supported from the nursing approach, and scientific texts on the subject are scarce.

Objective:

To systematize the term care for the family caregiver of the elderly at the end of life as a subject of nursing care.

Methods:

Systematic review, between March and May 2019, for a reflexive critical analysis of the content of documents from 12 years (2006-2018), published in Spanish in SciELO and Google academic. For the search strategy, the flowchart (PRISMA) was used, with the following keywords and Boolean operators: "anciano" OR "envejecimiento" AND "cuidado de enfermería" OR "enfermería" AND “cuidador” [in English, "elderly" OR "aging" AND "nursing care" OR "nursing" AND "caregiver"]. Critical evaluation of the included studies was carried out through content analysis.

Conclusions:

Care for the family caregiver of the elderly at the end of life was defined operationally as: A complex process in which the identification of human needs in the psycho-spiritual order, physical health, the environment and the social setting influences the relationship between the family caregiver and the elderly at the end of life, in which the individual and personal experience is recognized and that contributes to the person’s quality of life.

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