Table 2 Recommendation 1: Ascertain a patient or family member’s perspective before offering your own

Try to find out what a patient or family member would like to get out of a conversation

Where possible, create opportunities for patients or family members to raise matters they would like to discuss. They may indicate their readiness to discuss illness progression or end of life. If they do not, it may nonetheless be possible to get a sense of how open, or reluctant, they might be to engage with such matters. What you say next can be informed by this.

Try to find out a patient’s or family member’s perspective about the future

Before offering your own perspective about a patient’s future, try to ascertain a patient’s or family member’s perspective about this matter. This will help you to take that perspective into account when deciding how to offer your own perspective and when deciding when, how, and whether to encourage and pursue their engagement with matters relating to illness progression and end of life.