Physician and Nursing Perspectives on Patient Encounters in End-of-Life Care

Conclusions

Our conceptual framework, characterized by a socialization process from a curative orientation to a dying orientation that is centered around the process of effective communication, is more inclusive and dynamic than previously described. Future research should test and refine the applicability of this framework and the interventions that facilitate socialization to dying.

Acknowledgments

Our work was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Faculty Scholars Program (T. P.D),the John A. Hartford Foundation (S. A.H.,T. P.D.),and the School of Nursing office of Grants and Research and the Center on Aging at the University of Kansas Medical Center (S. A.H.,T. P.D.).We thank Ann Kuckelman Cobb, RN, PhD, and Anne Walling, MD, for their review of our manuscript.