Communications in End-of-Life care: Issues and Challenges of Indians with terminal illness in Australia

Context: Effective communication between doctors, patients and their family members is the corner stone of providing appropriate end-of-life care for patients. In western countries like Australia, communicating with patients from non-English speaking backgrounds is a great challenge for health professionals working in end-of-life settings. Aim: The main aim of the study is to explore the communication issues between family caregivers and health professionals. Methods: A constructivist grounded theory methodology was used for the study. Purposive sampling was utilised to recruit six family caregivers from inpatient and home-based settings. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded. Data were analysed using grounded theory. Results: Two major themes were identified from the analysis of the findings as follows: communicating with staff; and communicating with the loved ones. Conclusion: There is still a major gap in providing sensitive information to the patients and their family members in end-of-life-care settings. Therefore, the health professionals need to improve their communication skills and provide appropriate information to the patients and their family members.