Aging & mental health
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Aging & mental health · Jun 2019
Exploring provider-surrogate communication during POLST discussions for individuals with advanced dementia.
This qualitative descriptive study explored provider-surrogate communication during Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) discussions for patients with advanced dementia. ⋯ Findings highlight areas that require providers' attention to conduct effective communication, such as delivering comprehensive information about life-sustaining treatments including discussion of risks and benefits in the context of dementia. Findings also support the use of the conceptual model as a framework to examine provider-surrogate communication in the context of POLST discussions, advanced dementia, and non-hospital settings. Additional research is necessary to confirm these findings in larger, more diverse groups of patients, surrogates, and providers.