Purpose: To identify physiological symptoms, nursing diagnoses and specific nursing interventions to dying cares for patients with end-stage cancers.

Methods: Data were collected through a survey from convenience samples of three hundred sixty five registered nurses who regularly provided direct patient cares for patients with end-stage cancers in Japan. The questionnaire consisted of nurses' demographic data and 3 lists: a) physiological symptom list selected from Carpenito's Handbook (Carpenito-Moyet, 2006), b) NANDA-I nursing diagnosis (ND) list, and c) dying cares list selected from NIC book (Mccloskey & Bulechek, 2004). Nurses were asked to specify frequency of stating each of the patient symptoms, NDs, and dying cares on the lists. Frequency of each item was stated a five Likert Scale. Results: Frequently stated patients' physiological symptoms were respiratory failure, hemorrhage, malnutrition, anemia, and ileus. The frequently stated nursing diagnoses were Chronic pain, Activity intolerance, Acute pain, Anxiety, Impaired skin integrity, and Fatigue. The nursing diagnoses that induced dying cares were Death anxiety, Decisional conflict, Anxiety, Risk for aspiration, and Caregiver role strain. The dying cares for these nursing diagnoses were “Communicate willingness to discuss death”, “Facilitate obtaining spiritual support for patient and family”, “Include the family in care decisions and activities, as desired”, and “Monitor mood change”.

Conclusion: These results indicated that nursing diagnoses stated for patients with end-stage cancer were appropriate to support patients' QOL at the end of their lives.