PERCEPTIONS OF A GOOD DEATH - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE VIEWS OF HOSPICE STAFF AND PATIENTS

The literature suggests that health professionals working in palliativ e care have developed an idealised concept of dying which has been lab elled the 'good' death. This paper reports the results of a preliminar y qualitative study which compared the concepts of a 'good' death used by patients and staff in a palliative care unit. Semistructured inter views designed to elicit perceptions of 'good' and 'bad' deaths were c onducted with 18 patients and 20 health professionals. The transcribed interviews were content analysed. There were major differences betwee n the views of patients and staff. The patients' descriptions of a 'go od' death were diverse and included: dying in one's sleep, dying quiet ly, with dignity, being pain free and dying suddenly. In comparison, s taff characterised a 'good' death in terms of adequate symptom control , family involvement, peacefulness and lack of distress, while a 'bad' death was described as involving uncontrolled symptoms, lack of accep tance and being young. The findings suggest that patients and staff di ffer in their conceptualisations of a 'good' death.