Diversity in Advance Care Planning and End-Of-Life Conversations: Discourses of Healthcare Professionals and Researchers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

To meet the end-of-life needs of all patients, ongoing conversations about values and preferences regarding end-of-life care are essential. Aspects of social identity are associated with disparities in end-of-life care outcomes. Therefore, accounting for patient diversity in advance care planning and end-of-life conversations is important for equitable end-of-life practices. We conducted 16 semi-structured interviews to explore how Dutch healthcare professionals and researchers conceptualized diversity in advance care planning and end-of-life conversations and how they envision diversity-responsive end-of-life care and research. Using thematic discourse analysis, we identified five ‘diversity discourses’: the categorical discourse; the diversity as a determinant discourse; the diversity in norms and values discourse; the everyone is unique discourse, and the anti-essentialist discourse. These discourses may have distinct implications for diversity-responsive end-of-life conversations, care and research. Awareness and reflection on these discourses may contribute to more inclusive end-of-life practices.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
Early online date2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords

  • advance care planning
  • discourses
  • diversity
  • end-of-life care
  • end-of-life conversations
  • equity

Cite this