TY - JOUR T1 - The autonomy of demented patients: interviews with caregivers. JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 184 LP - 187 DO - 10.1136/jme.14.4.184 VL - 14 IS - 4 AU - S L Ekman AU - A Norberg Y1 - 1988/12/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/14/4/184.abstract N2 - Tape-recorded semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 nursing aides and enrolled nurses in the geriatric clinic in UmeƄ, Sweden. The interviews focused on the difference between the care of demented and non-demented patients and ethical conflicts in dementia care. The results indicate that caregivers have problems in providing the demented patients with opportunities to act autonomously in everyday matters on the ward, mainly due to the difficulty of understanding what the patients wish and the fact that their wishes, when understood, often seem irrational. Measures to provide the demented patients with more opportunities to act autonomously in everyday matters are suggested. ER -