Several areas emerged for physicians to focus their attention on when communicating with dying patients. These findings provide guidance in how to improve this communication. They also highlight the need to approach communication about end-of-life care as a spectrum that requires attention from the time of a terminal diagnosis through death.

BACKGROUND: A framework for understanding and evaluating physicians' skills at providing end-of-life care from the perspectives of patients, families, and health care workers will promote better quality of care at the end of life.

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