Culture and Palliative Care: Preferences, Communication, Meaning, and Mutual Decision-Making (Journal of Pain Symptom Management)

​Palliative care is gaining acceptance across the world. However, even when palliative care resources exist, both the delivery and distribution of services too often is neither equitably nor acceptably provided to diverse population groups. The goal of this paper is to illustrate tensions in the delivery of palliative care for diverse patient populations in order to help clinicians to improve care for all.

Authors define and differentiate between culture, race, and ethnicity, so that these terms -- often used interchangeably -- are not conflated and are more effectively used in caring for diverse populations. Examples are presented from an integrative literature review of recent research on culture and palliative care to illustrate both how and why varied responses to pain and suffering occur in different patterns, focusing on four areas of palliative care: the formation of care preferences, communication patterns, different meanings of suffering, and decision-making processes about care.

For each area, authors provide international and multi-ethnic examples of variations that emphasize the need for personalized care and the avoidance of stereotyping beliefs and practices without considering individual circumstances and life histories.

• Cindy L. Cain, PhD
• Marjorie Kagawa Singer, PhD, MA, MN, RN, FAAN
• et al