End-of-Life Care Terminology

Our current featured article is titled “End-of-Life Care Terminology: A Scoping Review” authored by Zahra Rahemi, PhD, RN andTracy Fasolino, PhD, FNP-BC, ACHPN. The article is available at no cost while it is featured, and we welcome your comments in response! Here is a message that Dr. Rahemi provided about their work:

End of life care research mostly focuses on end-of-life care options, cost of care, and advance care planning. However, the type of language and terminology that is used in end-of-life care literature and advance care planning forms is overlooked. The terminology used regarding end-of-life care options can convey positive, negative, or neutral meanings. For example, the term “intensive care” might convey a negative connotation compared to “comfort care”. Using these two terms in advance care planning forms and literature may influence individuals’ understanding and decisions about preferred end-of-life care options. Terminology and language are important in caring and nursing sciences, especially in the field of end-of-life care wherein the importance of culture and diversity is emphasized. The focus of this scoping review is to recommend healthcare professional, researchers, and policy makers to use neutral connotative language and terms when designing end-of-life care or advance care planning methods.