• Jelle van Gurp, Jeroen Hasselaar, Evert van Leeuwen, Patrick Hoek, Kris Vissers, and Martine van Selm.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Pain and Palliative Medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands. Electronic address: J.Gurp@anes.umcn.nl.
• Patient Educ Couns. 2013 Dec 1;93(3):504-14.

ObjectiveAppropriate palliative care communication is pivotal to optimizing the quality of life in dying patients and their families. This review aims at describing communication patterns in palliative care and discussing potential relations between communication patterns and upcoming telecare in the practice of palliative care.MethodsThis review builds on a systematic five-step qualitative analysis of the selected articles: 1. Development of a 'descriptive table of studies reviewed' based on the concept of genre, 2. Open coding of table content and first broad clustering of codes, 3. Intracluster categorization of inductive codes into substantive categories, 4. Constant inter- and intracluster comparison results in identification of genres, and 5. Labeling of genres.ResultsThis review includes 71 articles. In the analysis, two communication genres in palliative care proved to be dominant: the conversation to connect, about creating and maintaining a professional-patient/family relationship, and the conversation to instill realism, about telling a clinical truth without diminishing hope.ConclusionThe abovementioned two genres clarify a logical intertwinement between communicative purposes, the socio-ethical background underlying palliative care practice and elements of form.Practice ImplicationsOur study supports understanding of current communication in palliative care and anticipates future communicative actions in an era of new communication technologies.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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