March 4, 2021

Physicians guide to having end-of-life conversations

A doctor is standing in a hospital waiting room. There’s a black/dark purple circle around the doctor with shadowy outlines of people to convey the feeling of being overwhelmed with death. Above the doctor is a quote: "Doctors should be trained better when it comes to end of life. We need to improve our fluency in discussing emotions. We need to be okay with saying difficult words, like 'death' and 'dying.' " – Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez — Credit: Illustration by Molly Mendoza

Through our extensive reporting with medical professionals, we learned that many medical schools often provide insufficient training around death and dying. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating great need, this guide is meant to be a resource for physicians.

Download a printable PDF poster of this guide here.

The facts

Delivering news about death can be difficult and emotionally taxing for physicians.
End-of-life conversations are not a focus for most medical schools.
There is insufficient training in communication for clinicians.
In 2020, emergency medicine physicians experienced increased levels of burnout and emotional exhaustion.

Conversation guides

Looking for guides on having conversations that help patients and family members say goodbye? Here’s a list of resources.
Looking for steps on how to deliver a death notification? Try the GRIEV_ING mnemonic.
Want to practice having a conversation? Try this app.

Learn more

Have questions or want to share more? Reach us at @KHNews and @reveal.
Listen to our story that follows a new doctor dealing with death during the pandemic.

Physicians guide to having end-of-life conversations is a story from Reveal. Reveal is a registered trademark of The Center for Investigative Reporting and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.

This post was originally published on Reveal.