title: Communication in the intensive care unit about the end of life.
abstract: Communicating well in the intensive care unit is essential to providing quality critical care for the families of patients who are expected to die. There are many examples in the literature of how clinicians fall short of meeting these needs of families. There is also a developing body of literature describing approaches and tools that may have a positive impact on the perceived quality of end-of-life communication. The quality of clinician communication can be improved just as other skills that are important in the intensive care unit.
authors.affiliation: The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, Box 359762, 325 9th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104, USA. ptreece@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Patsy D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Treece
mesh_terms: D000004:Abbreviations as Topic; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D019985:Benchmarking; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D024382:Professional Role / Q000523:psychology; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012660:Semantics; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D017749:Total Quality Management