Perspectives on Death and Dying by the Bereaved Designated Personal Representatives of Women Diagnosed With Metastatic Breast Cancer.
Rachel L Brazee, Karen E Alsbrook, Kathleen O Lindell and 2 others
PMID 39356255WHAT IT FOUND
Bereaved family representatives rated the health care team's overall care highly but described the dying process poorly.
Late, incomplete conversations about prognosis and wishes left many unprepared, while honest, unhurried communication and support shaped their experience.
Key findings
01Forty percent of surveyed bereaved representatives rated the overall dying process poorly, while sixty percent rated the overall care received by the health care team as excellent.
02More than half reported that patients were unable to say goodbye and did not make funeral arrangements before death, and these were rated as poor experiences.
03Interviews produced four themes: resilience, communication, support, and knowledge; when communication was lacking, representatives reported frustration, unpreparedness, and bereavement difficulties.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The interview sample was small: sixteen representatives, and the survey sample was twenty-five. Recruitment was limited to English-speaking representatives of female patients, so it says nothing about non-English families, male patients, or younger patients. Many participants were contacted one to almost three years after the death, so memory and grief may have shaped their reports. The number contacted through support groups and snowball sampling is unknown, and only representatives willing to be recontacted were interviewed. The findings are from bereaved representatives, not patients, so they may not match the patient's own experience.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text; the article is tagged as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the sixty percent excellent healthcare-team rating as evidence that most families experienced a good death. Forty percent rated the dying process poorly, and more than half reported patients could not say goodbye or make funeral arrangements.