Background: Decisions about potentially life-sustaining treatment are often not raised with patients and families until end of life (if at all), and are influenced by their many relationships.
Objective: Understand how patients and families' relationships impacted their experiences of making these decisions, and how healthcare philosophies impacted authors' portrayal of these experiences.
Methods: Qualitative metasynthesis design. Purposeful sampling was used to select the 19 qualitative studies included. Relational ethics and meta-study (an approach to metasynthesis) guided data collection and analysis.
Findings: 1) Closeness in relationships was valued. Healthcare professionals' (dis)honesty and (lack of) empathy affected closeness with patients/families; 2) Patients' identity and quality of life was considered in decisions, and was maintained through close relationships; 3) Reliance on relationships occurred for information, care and support; 4) Decision makers felt a sense of responsibility to consider their relationships when deliberating treatments; 5) Normative discourses were reflected in authors' writing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/44043 |
| Date | 12 September 2022 |
| Creators | Montanaro, Palmina |
| Contributors | Wright, David |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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