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Important Aspects of Communicating with End-of Life Patients and How Nurses Can Facilitate the Process

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Important Aspects of Communicating with End-of Life Patients and How Nurses Can Facilitate the Process
End of life decision-making is often a very difficult process and one that every person will eventually have to go through at some point in their lives. Although communicating about the advance directives is the typical route most health professionals use, it is not adequate in aiding families in the process of end of life decision-making. While nurses are in an ideal position to help patients and their families through this process, it is often over looked because most people are uncomfortable with communicating about death and dying. These choices are a quality of life issue and it is not a subject that should be taken lightly. End-of-life discussions should be addressed with compassion and empathy. Nurses can facilitate and ease this process by being clear, avoiding euphemisms, spelling out goals and expectations of the patients treatment, being comfortable about talking through end of life decision-making and helping patients and their families to maintain hope and optimism. Clarity One obstacle nurses face when communicating with end-of-life patient’s is clarity. Nurses need to be clearer and more specific with patients so there is not any confusion. According to Hancock, Butow, Walder and Tattersall’s article on facilitating end of life decision making, it say’s that the providers that are unwilling to use words such as death and dying send mixed messages to

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