title: Physicians' and the public's attitudes on communication about death.
abstract: We studied the preferences of physicians and the public as to how physicians should inform a family of a patient's unexpected death. When the family had to be reached by telephone, 72% of our 150 physician-respondents preferred telling the family that the patient was critically ill and asking the family to come to the hospital immediately (critical notification [CN]); 25% of the physicians preferred announcing the death over the telephone (death notification [DN]). When the news had to be announced in person, 58% of physicians preferred immediately announcing it (IA), and 33% preferred gradual announcement (GA). A Gallup poll commissioned by us showed that 64% of the adult population in the United States preferred CN, 26% DN, 79% IA, and 17% GA; CN and IA were preferred in all the demographic subgroups examined. We discuss our findings, the reasons for them, and their ethical and practical implications.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians; D011639:Public Opinion; D013689:Telephone; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States