Communication with Families in the Last Days of a Patient's Life and Optimal Delivery of a Death Pronouncement

Soichiro Okamoto, Yu Uneno, Masanori Mori, Takashi Yamaguchi and Nobuhisa Nakajima

A chapter in Palliative Care from IntechOpen

Abstract: Communicating with family members is critically important when a severely ill patient is experiencing their last few days of life. However, healthcare professionals (HCPs) have limited opportunities to learn effective and respectful ways to perform this communication. In recent decades, significant effort has been put forth to identify the phenomena that indicate the last hours and days of life and the optimal methods to deliver a death pronouncement, which will potentially help HCPs communicate compassionately with family members throughout the dying process. In this chapter, we will review the literature regarding the phenomena that indicate the last hours and days of life and the death pronouncement. Furthermore, we will discuss clinical implications derived from those articles and future research perspectives.

Keywords: communication; impending death; bereaving family; death pronouncement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:180850

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.84730

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