They might dispute on the aims of treatment – cure or quality of life -, on what information will be given to the patient, or on what treatment is indicated when death is approaching. Of course our analysis of different views and values of Dutch care providers versus Moroccan and Turkish families on care at the end of life should be handled with care: every patient and family is unique and care providers also diverge from each other. But Western-oriented Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical care providers should be aware that
dominant principles in palliative care such as emphasis on quality of life and advanced care planning are not blindly adopted by patients from a non-western origin. In order to deliver good care find more professionals should be aware of their own culture-related values and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical norms and curious to get to know the views of ‘others’. Taking time and creating opportunities to question mutual expectations, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical wishes and fears can help to avoid frictions and lead to strategies and
care interventions acceptable to all parties involved. Care providers should accept that for some people ‘good palliative care’ can be a contradiction in terms, as ‘good care’ for them must be directed to recovery. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions FMdG designed and conducted the study, performed and analyzed the interviews and wrote the manuscript. ALF contributed to the design of the study, interpretation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the data and the critical revision of the manuscript. METCvdM and SvdG commented extensively on the design of the study and on the drafts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Pre-publication history The pre-publication mafosfamide history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-684X/9/19/prepub Acknowledgements The research presented was financially supported by ZonMw, The Netherlands organization for health research and development.
During the last decades, considerable progress has been recorded in the knowledge of the action and the use of opiates in pain management [1-3]. In spite of this progress, the pain prevalence in general populations and health care institutions remains high, varying from 20 to 80% depending on the region or the country [4-7].