TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing uncertainty in conversations about treatment preferences
T2 - A study of home health care nurses
AU - Hines, Stephen C.
AU - Leslie, Nan
AU - Badzek, Laurie
AU - Glover, Jackie
PY - 1998
Y1 - 1998
N2 - Inappropriate efforts to manage uncertainty may account for difficulties associated with communication about serious illness. This study tested a series of predictions concerning the relationship between the amount of uncertainty associated with a communicative task and health care providers’ comfort levels when engaging in that task. A mailed survey of 540 home health care nurses confirmed expectations that discussions of future or more serious health problems will create more discomfort than discussions of present or less serious problems, that unstructured conversations produce more discomfort than structured discussions, and that comfort discussing serious illness would be positively associated with extent of communication about patients’ treatment preferences and the likelihood of learning these preferences.
AB - Inappropriate efforts to manage uncertainty may account for difficulties associated with communication about serious illness. This study tested a series of predictions concerning the relationship between the amount of uncertainty associated with a communicative task and health care providers’ comfort levels when engaging in that task. A mailed survey of 540 home health care nurses confirmed expectations that discussions of future or more serious health problems will create more discomfort than discussions of present or less serious problems, that unstructured conversations produce more discomfort than structured discussions, and that comfort discussing serious illness would be positively associated with extent of communication about patients’ treatment preferences and the likelihood of learning these preferences.
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U2 - 10.1080/08824099809362130
DO - 10.1080/08824099809362130
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0040940582
SN - 1522-6514
VL - 15
SP - 331
EP - 339
JO - International Journal of Phytoremediation
JF - International Journal of Phytoremediation
IS - 3
ER -