Nurses’ Communication With the Families of Patients at the End-of-Life

Background Effective communication is important in providing quality care to families at the end-of-life. In the end-of-life situations, the nurses’ views on how to communicate with the family are not well understood. Aim This study was conducted to explore the nurses' experiences of their comm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Omega: Journal of Death and Dying 2022-11, Vol.86 (1), p.119-134
Main Authors: Norouzadeh, Reza, Anoosheh, Monireh, Ahmadi, Fazlollah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Content analysis
End of life decisions
Nurses
Patient communication
Qualitative research
Quality of care
Relatives
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Summary:Background Effective communication is important in providing quality care to families at the end-of-life. In the end-of-life situations, the nurses’ views on how to communicate with the family are not well understood. Aim This study was conducted to explore the nurses' experiences of their communication with families of patients at the end-of-life situations. Methods The authors used standards for reporting qualitative research. The data were analyzed by conventional content analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 Iranian nurses who had the experiences of dealing with patients’ families at the end-of-life. Results Nurses’ perceptions of communication with families emerged base on the main theme: “Disrupted communication” consisting of two categories: “restricted communication” and “abortive communication.” Conclusion The results of this study highlight the need to increase the professional and ethical sensitivity of nurses in dealing with patients' families at the end-of-life.
ISSN:0030-2228
1541-3764
DOI:10.1177/0030222820959933