Journal of palliative medicine
The most recent articles from:
J Palliat Med
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Context: Patients with serious illness and their caregivers often face challenging decisions. When faced with these decisions, patients and caregivers may display signs of ambivalence and reluctance toward end-of-life decision making. Methods: We recruited 22 palliative care clinicians to participate in a communication coaching study. ⋯ Conclusion: We found that coders can reliably identify patient and caregiver reluctance and ambivalence. Further, reluctance and ambivalence occur frequently in palliative care encounters. When patients and caregivers have ambivalence, decision making might be hampered.