Positive emotion communication: Fostering well-being at end of life.
Alexandra L Terrill, Lee Ellington, Kevin K John and 4 others
PMID 29241975WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses produced most positive emotion talk in hospice visits, especially praise, humor, and brief pleasantries.
Patients and caregivers used humor most. Positive emotion did not clearly fade near death.
Key findings
01Nurses made the most positive emotion statements, and praise, humor, and perfunctory comments were 23%, 22%, and 22% of nurse positive emotion.
02Humor was the most common positive emotion type for caregivers and patients, at 31% and 34% of their positive emotion.
03Most positive emotion categories showed no time effect, while humor and savoring decreased by -0.242 and -0.112 per visit, changes the authors said were unlikely to be clinically relevant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only twenty cases were analyzed, so the patterns may not hold in other hospice settings. The study was exploratory and descriptive, not a test of whether positive emotion communication helps patients or caregivers. Audio recordings could miss nonverbal positive emotion, such as facial expressions or touch. The coding system may have missed broader emotional processes, such as moving from loss toward resilience. The study cannot show that one person's positive emotion caused another person's positive emotion. The sample differed from national averages in caregiver age, patient age, hospice stay length, and religious representation.
Declared interests
Supplied publication types indicate NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest statement.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that nurses should use humor or praise to improve patient or caregiver well-being. The study only describes recorded speech in a small exploratory sample and did not test outcomes.