End-of-life parental communication priorities among bereaved fathers due to cancer.
Eliza M Park, Allison M Deal, Justin M Yopp and 5 others
PMID 28012678WHAT IT FOUND
Bereaved fathers identified four key end-of-life conversations with dying mothers: how to raise the children, how she wants to be remembered, telling children about her impending death, and discussing her death afterward.
These priorities remained consistent regardless of the father's grief or depression levels.
Key findings
01Fathers identified four domains as the most important topics to discuss with a dying parent before death: how the mother would like the children raised, how the mother wants to be remembered, speaking with the children about the mother’s impending death, and speaking with the children about their mother’s death after she passes.
02Fathers' responses to these communication priorities did not significantly differ with time since death, grief scores, or depression scores.
03Most fathers reported that their wives were worried about the strain on them (80%) as well as the children (90%) at the end of life.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study relies on the retrospective perspectives of bereaved fathers only, so it does not capture the views of the dying mothers, dying fathers, or unmarried co-parents. The sample was recruited through a specific educational website for single fathers due to cancer, which may limit the generalizability to fathers from different backgrounds or those not engaged with such organizations. The data reflect what fathers believed was important to discuss, not what was actually communicated between the parents. The study was exploratory with a significance threshold set at 0.01, and no modeling was performed to control for multiple comparisons.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (grant R01 CA159754) and the American Cancer Society (grant RSG-12-220-01-PCSM). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these priorities apply to all dying parents or all bereaved caregivers. The findings are specific to widowed fathers with dependent children and reflect their retrospective opinions on what *should* have been discussed, not a validated outcome of actual communication or improved bereavement outcomes.