Table 5.

Descriptive quotes of respondents with no unmet communication needs

Caregiver	Illustrative quote
Caregiver 16, husband	Caregiver: We talked about what she would do if given the choice between trying another chemotherapy knowing it wouldn’t work or make her sicker. So we were both prepared for that… Interviewer: So what do you think is most important to plan for? Caregiver: I think perspective – helping them [families] acquire a perspective that respects death. Because the whole avoidance thing is all about, ‘I don’t want to talk about that’…Why not treat death as a step in life that we make that you can prepare for and plan for and take away some of the horrible feeling that you have when it happens?
Caregiver 6, wife	[Doctor X] delivered such horrible news so eloquently. It was certainly not what we wanted to hear, but I just felt that we had in our little conference room the whole team–it was special, and it probably sounds weird…the NPs stayed on and talked about, “Okay, what do you wanna do next?” And [patient] wanted to be home…And I didn’t even know what a hospice house was…But they said that they would get in touch with [hospice services], and we would hear from them the next day. And that’s exactly what happened…So we were able to carry his wishes out. And the other thing that he really – which I thought was pretty forthright, is he said he wanted to have a hospital bed rather than dying in our bed because he thought that would be hard for me.

Caregiver

Illustrative quote

Caregiver 16, husband

Caregiver: We talked about what she would do if given the choice between trying another chemotherapy knowing it wouldn’t work or make her sicker. So we were both prepared for that…
Interviewer: So what do you think is most important to plan for?
Caregiver: I think perspective – helping them [families] acquire a perspective that respects death. Because the whole avoidance thing is all about, ‘I don’t want to talk about that’…Why not treat death as a step in life that we make that you can prepare for and plan for and take away some of the horrible feeling that you have when it happens?

Caregiver 6, wife

[Doctor X] delivered such horrible news so eloquently. It was certainly not what we wanted to hear, but I just felt that we had in our little conference room the whole team–it was special, and it probably sounds weird…the NPs stayed on and talked about, “Okay, what do you wanna do next?” And [patient] wanted to be home…And I didn’t even know what a hospice house was…But they said that they would get in touch with [hospice services], and we would hear from them the next day. And that’s exactly what happened…So we were able to carry his wishes out. And the other thing that he really – which I thought was pretty forthright, is he said he wanted to have a hospital bed rather than dying in our bed because he thought that would be hard for me.