Table 3.

List of practices by theme

Themes
Providing care and ensuring comfort	1. Provide patient care before the relatives enter the room, if necessary	2. Support requests for relatives to perform care or care-sharing (co-care) for the patient, depending on the relatives
	3. Take care of relatives through care given to the patient	4. Attend to physical needs
	5. Ensure the comfort of relatives in the unit	6. Propose a massage to relatives if trained to do so
	7. Propose an approach using relaxation, hypnosis, or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, depending on the situation and the psychologist’s training	8. Invite relatives to leave the room or to use the family room
	9. Offer to provide some respite time for the family	10. Allow family and friends to recreate a moment of intimacy with the sick person
	11. Psychologically prepare relatives for their entry into the room	12. Inquire about absent relatives
	13. Ensure that relatives are surrounded and supported by an entourage	14. Attend to children
	15. If necessary, grant a request for make-up for the patient after death	16. Conduct assistance interviews Personalise these in terms of objectives and content and in case of a request for euthanasia
	17. Inform relatives about what they will see in the room before entering; explain the medical devices and equipment once inside accompanying them to the room	18. Answer questions related to pain
	19. Explain the care, its impact on the patient’s well-being, and its continuation	20. Announce entry into agonic phase
	21. Help relatives to recognise the signs of agony that will appear	22. Explain the patient’s condition and visible symptoms
	23. Answer questions regarding the patient’s level of awareness of reality	24. Check whether the expectations of family members are being met
	25. Inform relatives that caregivers will be entering the room more often because the patient can no longer call them	26. Inform of the imminence of death
	27. Respect the relatives’ wishes concerning the announcement of the death	28. For relatives who wish to be present at the time of death, warn them that this may not be possible
	29. Give relatives an opportunity to indicate that they do not wish to be present at the time of death	30. Inform relatives that they can call whenever they want to, even at night
	31. Anticipate the steps that will need to be taken after death	32. Announce the death to relatives in person or by phone, provided that the nurse has received formal or informal training
	33. Make physical contact with loved ones (touch or be touched) as the situation arises	34. Receive the request for euthanasia
	35. Talk about something other than the situation
Communicating, informing, explaining Interacting	36. Welcome and approach relatives; speak to them in the corridor if they are not familiar; show availability in a non-verbal way; establish a climate of trust	37. Propose listening times, a silent presence
	38. Propose a formal interview; in a dedicated space; with others who are close to the patient; include several professionals; in person or by telephone; post a sign to indicate that the room is in use; schedule the interview outside regular hours if necessary; especially in the case of a request for euthanasia	39. Defer non-urgent care if a close relatives visits
	40. Consider the patient’s socio-cultural and religious practices	41. Keep young children occupied during the visit
	42. Propose that relatives stay the night	43. Encourage family and friends to contact the doctors and members of the care staff
Mobilising interdisciplinary skills	44. Work in pairs such as nurse and nursing assistant	45. Propose a multi-professional interview
	46. Specifically include attending to young children during an interview with other professionals present, including the psychologist	47. Hand off tasks between peers
	48. Pass the patient care role on to other members of the PCU and to cultural representatives	49. Serve a third-party function between the team, family, and patient
	50. Design an interdisciplinary support project for relatives	51. Consider setting up a weekly meeting with relatives to discuss the general functioning of the PCU and to inform them of the team’s position on certain issues with the participation of caregivers and palliative-care volunteers
	52. Provide talking spaces