Yes. There is good literature defining “good death,” and you can use it to support your background section. A useful and frequently used paper is the systematic review by Meier et al., which identified 11 core themes of a good death across patients, families, and healthcare professionals ^[5].

Key literature points:

• A systematic review of 36 studies identified 11 major themes of a “good death”: preferences for the dying process, pain-free status, emotional well-being, family, dignity, life completion, treatment preferences, quality of life, relationship with healthcare providers, religious/spiritual needs, and “other” factors ^[5].

• In that review, patients most frequently emphasised preferences for the dying process, being pain-free, and emotional well-being as important components of a good death ^[5].

• A later qualitative study also found that a good death is highly individual, but common elements include advance planning, respecting patient preferences, and ensuring relatives and professionals understand the patient’s wishes ^[3].

• ICU-focused literature similarly identifies being free from suffering, privacy, family involvement, withdrawal or withholding of non-beneficial life-sustaining technologies, and spiritual or cultural support as important good-death themes ^[1].

• Nursing literature on death with dignity highlights private space, family visiting, cultural and religious support, and staff palliative-care training as important elements of optimal end-of-life care ^[4].

For your paper, you can write:

A “good death” is commonly understood as a dying process that respects the person’s preferences, relieves pain and suffering, maintains dignity, supports emotional and spiritual needs, involves family, avoids unwanted life-sustaining treatment, and provides continuity with trusted healthcare providers ^[1][3][5]. A systematic review identified 11 core themes of good death, including preferences for the dying process, pain-free status, emotional well-being, family, dignity, treatment preferences, quality of life, relationship with healthcare providers, and religious or spiritual needs ^[5]. These themes are highly relevant to RCHE residents because dying in place can be framed around comfort-focused care, family involvement, privacy, spiritual or cultural support, and respect for advance care decisions ^[1][3][5].

You can connect this to RCHE dying in place like this:

In the RCHE context, dying in place should not be understood simply as “death occurring in the home.” Rather, it should be viewed as a structured approach to support a good death by providing symptom comfort, privacy, family involvement, respect for treatment preferences or advance decisions, cultural and spiritual support, and avoidance of unwanted or non-beneficial life-sustaining treatment ^[1][3][5]. Therefore, staff education is needed to translate the concept of a good death into practical bedside care ^[4].

A concise definition you can use:

For this paper, a good death refers to an end-of-life experience in which the resident’s preferences are respected, distressing symptoms are relieved, dignity and privacy are maintained, family and spiritual support are available, and unwanted or non-beneficial interventions are avoided ^[1][3][5].