Care Providers’ Integration of Family Requests in End-of-life Communication: Understanding What to Do and Why to Do It

ABSTRACT

End-of-life situations are fraught with challenges for patients, family members, and individuals working at the patient’s bedside. Care workers must address needs of the patient, as well as his or her distressed family members. This article is an inductive investigation of care workers’ (nurses, patient advocates, and clergy) experiences with end-of-life discussions when the family asks to “do everything.” Participants also noted resistance to hospice in some of these encounters based on pre-existing connotations of hospice held by the family members. The article concludes with a discussion about how identifying end-of-life terms may be transformed to be more accessible for family members.