BACKGROUND Following a patient's death, some doctors routinely write a letter of condolence to the bereaved family. Practice appears to vary widely but this is poorly documented, particularly in the UK setting. We wished to explore the attitudes of oncologists and palliative care consultants towards writing letters of condolence to patient's families. METHODS A sample of oncology and palliati...

BACKGROUND As intensive care mortality is high, end of life is a subject of major concern for intensivists. In this context, relatives are particularly vulnerable and prone to post-ICU syndrome, in the form of high levels of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and complicated grief. Grieving families suffer from a feeling of abandonment and evoke the need to get back in touch with the t...

condolence is part of austin’s expressive speech act and is related to searle’s behabitives illocutionary act. although a theoretically sound issue in pragmatics, condolence speech act has not been investigated as much as other speech acts in discourse-related studies. this paper aims at investigating interjections and intensifiers while performing condolence speech act among persian and englis...

Condolence is part of Austin’s expressive speech act and is related to Searle’s behabitives illocutionary act. Although a theoretically sound issue in pragmatics, condolence speech act has not been investigated as much as other speech acts in discourse-related studies. This paper aims at investigating interjections and intensifiers while performing condolence speech act among Persian and Englis...

BACKGROUND Cancer physicians frequently interact with dying patients, but little is known about these physicians' practices. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency and nature of bereavement practices among medical oncologists (MOs), radiation oncologists (ROs), and palliative care specialists (PCs); and to identify factors associated with bereavement follow-up. METHODS Survey...

Apology laws are gaining traction in the United States, prompting health care professionals to offer words of condolence for adverse medical outcomes without the fear of being sued for malpractice. Although these laws vary by jurisdiction, they have been shown to reduce the financial consequences of a medical malpractice lawsuit. The authors provide an overview of the laws regarding this issue ...