title: Talking to dying patients of their hopes and needs.
abstract: Patients use many different coping mechanisms when they are facing a terminal diagnosis, but it should not be assumed that they want to talk to nurses about the terminal nature of their illness. Research shows that a proportion of patients may want to, so this article suggests that best practice with regard to communication in palliative care could be achieved by using a sensitive assessment of how each patient chooses to cope with his or her situation rather than a uniform approach to care.
authors.affiliation: Royal Marsden Hospital, London.
authors.forename: Antonia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dean
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003142:Communication; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D009013:Morale; D020380:Needs Assessment; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology*; D014342:Truth Disclosure