title: Discussing preferred place of death with patients: staff experiences in a UK specialist palliative care setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  National end-of-life care policies propose that health professionals regularly discuss matters such as preferred place of death (PPD) with patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore clinician experiences of discussing PPD with palliative care patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six clinicians from a Scottish hospice each participated in a semi-structured interview. Interview data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four themes were integral to the participants' accounts: the importance of discussing preferences at the end of life (staff recognise the value of discussing patients' final wishes), identifying how and when to discuss PPD (discussions are tailored to the individual), reflecting on the emotional aspects of discussing PPD (discussing PPD is challenging but rewarding), and a journey from expectations to experience (discussing PPD becomes easier with time).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although potentially difficult, the participants believed that advance care planning is important and beneficial. With time, they had developed communication strategies enabling them to discuss PPD in an effective, patient-centred way.
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, The University of Edinburgh, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh, Scotland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fields
authors.forename: Anne M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Finucane
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oxenham
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D010166:Palliative Care; D012606:Scotland; D006113:United Kingdom