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ethics in cardiopulmonary medicine: Elizabeth Knauft, Elizabeth L. Nielsen, Ruth A. Engelberg, Donald L. Patrick, and J. Randall Curtis Barriers and Facilitators to End-of-Life Care Communication for Patients with COPD Chest 2005; 127: 2188-2196 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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What is important to severely ill patients?

Stephen R Workman   (7 July 2005)

What is important to severely ill patients? 7 July 2005
Stephen R Workman, Physician Dalhousie University Send letter to journal: Re: What is important to severely ill patients? sworkman{at}dal.ca Stephen R Workman	Knauft et al suggest that when patients would "rather concentrate on staying alive than talk about death," physicians should "acknowledge that this is a difficult topic for discussion but an important one for patients and physicians to address." I do not think physicians should tell patients what is important. Instead they should provide patients with an opportunity to express their emotional reaction to their illness and their situation. Questions such as 'Do you have any particular fears or anxieties when you think about the future?' or 'Do you think about the possibility that you could die from this illness' allow patients the opporutnity to freely choose to talk about death and dying. Or not.