ArticlePatient education and counseling2021
"If it's the time, it's the time": Existential communication in naturally-occurring palliative care conversations with individuals with advanced cancer, their families, and clinicians.
Article in Patient education and counseling, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Confidential Conversations in Palliative Care: Capability, Vulnerability, and Relational Encounter.Nursing philosophy : an international journal for healthcare professionals · 2026Article
- Communication practices and experience of connection in telehealth serious illness conversations with rural cancer patients: a qualitative study.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Confidential Conversations in Palliative Care: An Ethnographic Exploration of Trust and Interpersonal Relationship Between Nurse and Patient.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Beyond Everyday Small Talk: A Qualitative Study on Registered Nurses' Confidential Conversations in Palliative Care.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- Understanding meanings and lived experiences of spirituality among adults with cancer.Journal of psychosocial oncology · 2026Article
- Article
- "It's hard to talk to a computer, I get it": An exploratory analysis of clinician connection-building communication practices in rural telepalliative care encounters.PEC innovation · 2025Article
- Telehealth for the study of palliative care communication: opportunities, methodological challenges, and recommendations.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Perspectives from parents and clinicians on an ecology-focused approach to a group well-child care.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Attending to the Existential Experience.Journal of palliative medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Regaining Autonomy in a Holding Environment: Patients' Perspectives on the Existential Communication with Physicians When Suffering from a Severe, Chronic Illness: A Qualitative Nordic Study.Journal of religion and health · 2023Article
- "Daring to deal with the difficult and unexpected" registered nurses' confidential conversations with patients with palliative care needs: a qualitative interview study.BMC palliative care · 2023Article
- Existential Suffering in Palliative Care: An Existential Positive Psychology Perspective.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo explore how patients with advanced cancer, their families, and palliative care clinicians communicate about existential experience during palliative care conversations.
methodsWe analyzed data from the Palliative Care Communication Research Initiative (PCCRI) - a multisite cohort study conducted between 2014 and 2016 involving hospitalized adults with advanced cancer who were referred for inpatient palliative care consultations at two academic medical centers. We used a qualitative descriptive approach paired with inductive content analysis to analyze a random subsample of 30 patients from the PCCRI study (contributing to 38 palliative care conversations).
resultsWe found existential communication to be woven throughout palliative care conversations, with key themes related to: 1) time as a pressing boundary; 2) maintaining a coherent self; and 3) connecting with others.
conclusionCommunication about existential experience is omnipresent and varied in palliative care conversations between individuals with advanced cancer, their families, and clinicians. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Clinicians can recognize that discussion of time, routines of daily life, and relationships in the clinical context may hold profound existential relevance in palliative care conversations. Understanding how patients and families talk about existential experience in conversation can create opportunities for clinicians to better meet these needs.
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