I have decided that if I am going to continually encourage my very elderly and terminally ill patients to decline artificial life support measures at the end of the road, and instead, choose a “good death,” then I need to be able to explain and provide this “better” alternative more effectively.
So, I thought it time to revisit an article published in 2006, analyzing factors that define the concept of a “good death.” The author, Karen Kehl, MS, RN, ACHPN, gathered forty-two articles from diverse sources including medical, nursing, patient perspectives and sociological literature, and extracted concepts most frequently mentioned as contributing to the creation of a good death. Continue reading →