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Objectives: In palliative care, effective communication is essential to adequately meet the needs and preferences of patients and their relatives. Effective communication includes exchanging information, facilitates shared decision-making, and promotes an empathic care relationship. We explored the perspectives of patients with an advanced illness and their relatives on effective communication with health-care professionals. Methods: A systematic review was conducted. We searched Embase, Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Cochrane for original empirical studies published between January 1, 2015 and March 4, 2021. Results: In total, 56 articles on 53 unique studies were included. We found 7 themes that from the perspectives of patients and relatives contribute to effective communication: (1) open and honest information. However, this open and honest communication can also trigger anxiety, stress, and existential disruption. Patients and relatives also indicated that they preferred (2) health-care professionals aligning to the patient's and relative's process of uptake and coping with information; (3) empathy; (4) clear and understandable language; (5) leaving room for positive coping strategies, (6) committed health-care professionals taking responsibility; and (7) recognition of relatives in their role as caregiver. Most studies in this review concerned communication with physicians in a hospital setting. Significance of results: Most patients and relatives appreciate health-care professionals to not only pay attention to strictly medical issues but also to who they are as a person and the process they are going through. More research is needed on effective communication by nurses, in nonhospital settings and on communication by health-care professionals specialized in palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper aims to explore the extent to which the "revivalist" discourse of a good death, which promotes an awareness of dying shapes the lived realities of palliative care patients and their families in Portugal.Method: An ethnographic approach was developed. Participant observation was carried out in 2 palliative care units, and this was complemented by in-depth interviews. Ten terminally ill patients, 20 family members, and 20 palliative care professionals were interviewed.Results: The "revivalist" good death script might not be suitable for all dying people, as they might not want an open awareness of dying and, thereby, the acknowledgment of imminent potential death. This might be related to cultural factors and personal circumstances. The "social embeddedness narrative" offers an alternative to the "revivalist" good death script.Significance Of Results: The "revivalist" discourse, which calls for an open awareness of dying, is not a cultural preference in a palliative care context in Portugal, as it is not in accord with its familial nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]