What Constitutes a Good Death?

Abstract

This qualitative study is concerned with the views of clergy about the constituent elements of a 'good death'. The method employed to explore the question was a set of cards called the 'Conversations Game'. These cards, developed from research in the USA in 1999, contain a list of identified ingredients of a 'good death'. Within this study, the cards were further ordered to conceptualise the field under four headings, covering the four elements of palliative care: physical care, emotional (or psychological) care, social care, and spiritual care. Choices made from the cards formed the content of structured interviews conducted in November and December 2011 with a randomly selected group of Church of England clergy from the Diocese of Worcester. The study indicated that the clergy interviewed differed in their chosen components of a good death from the professional consensus in healthcare in some respects. Chief among these was a high priority given to spiritual care concerns.

Rural residents' perspectives on the rural ‘good death’: a scoping review

“…With the exception of two articles (Gysels et al . , Knight ), all studies were described as rural; no remote communities were specified. No standardised definition of rurality was reported.…”

“…Twenty‐nine focus groups and 378 interviews were conducted; 245 written surveys were completed; eight clinical encounters were detailed and six communities were observed. Sample sizes ranged from four (Knight ) to whole communities (Counts & Counts , van der Geest , Easom et al . , Joarder et al .…”

“…). With the exception of one urban–rural study (Knight ), all the included studies were classified as being solely rural in focus.…”

“…,b, Viellette et al . , Knight ); a ‘timely’ death (Counts & Counts ) that is a death coming ‘naturally and after a long and well‐spent life’ (van der Geest , p. 899) and ‘hopefully in my sleep’ (Felt et al . , p. 405) after having had opportunity to say goodbye to family; a ‘dignified’ death by maintaining identity, self‐worth, integrity and control (Wilson et al .…”

“…). Two articles (van der Geest , Knight ) acknowledged the difficulty of defining a ‘good death’ as it is dependent on individual interpretations, perspectives and priorities.…”