Communicating a terminal prognosis in a palliative care setting: Deficiencies in current communication training protocols

Which Critical Communication Skills Are Essential for Interdisciplinary End-of-Life Discussions?

“…Communication should be adapted based on what is acceptable to the patient. 10 Surgeon and author Atul Gawande popularized the term "explain-aholics," 21 and, indeed, clinicians often assume this role. We know so many things from lab details to CT scan results to treatment options to prognosis.…”

Palliative Care Communication

“…These programs prioritize information exchange and ensure receipt of messages. 22 In contrast, the nurse's communication role is transactional in nature, which means that both nurse and patient/family simultaneously and reciprocally design, deliver, and interpret messages and create meaning together. 23 In this transactional model of communication, information is not deposited and then assessed for receipt; rather, it is created through the interaction with an emphasis on task communication (accomplishing the relaying of information) alongside relational communication (conveying nonverbal communication).…”

Ways of providing the patient with a prognosis: A terminology of employed strategies based on qualitative data

“…As the current guidelines have been based almost exclusively on expert opinion, attention should be directed towards a need for guidelines derived from clinical practice and patient data [13,26,27]. Patient preferences, which are not always consistent with published guidelines, can vary between patients and even within an individual patient over time [28][29][30].…”