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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Impact of witnessing death on hospice patients | | Author(s) | Sheila Payne, Richard Hillier, Alison Langley-Evans |
| Journal title | Social Science and Medicine, vol 43, no 12, 1996 |
| Pages | pp 1785-1794 |
| Keywords | Death ; Attitude ; Patients ; Terminal care ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | There has been a radical change in hospital policies and medical practice since the concept of "awareness" was introduced to describe the nature of communication between dying patients and their carers. Most cancer patients are given full information about their disease and prognosis, with hospices providing a model of care in which death and dying are dealt with openly. This pilot investigation compared psychological morbidity, perceptions of comfort and/or distress, and descriptions of a "good death" in hospice cancer patients who reported witnessing a fellow patient's death, with patients who did not have this experience. Patients were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, an Events Checklist, and a semi-structured interview. Patients witnessing a death were significantly less depressed than those who did not. Awareness of dying was found to be both comforting and distressing. A "good death" was defined by patients in terms of symptom control, including dying in their sleep, being pain free, quietness and dignity. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010327210 A |
| Classmark | CW: DP: LF: LV: 4C * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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