Excellent communication is paramount in all areas of nursing practice, but perhaps most emphatically so in dealing with dying patients and their relatives. Skillful, truthful communication at the end of life affords people the dignity of making educated decisions about the management of their condition and how and where they want to spend their remaining time. Although each individual's information needs will be different and require careful assessment, healthcare professionals tend to underestimate patients’ desire for information and preferences about decision‐making (Oostendorp et al. [44]). A large UK study showed that the vast majority of cancer patients want all possible information, though the timing of such information and the depth of detail desired were variable (Jenkins et al. [26]). Cultural and spiritual influences must be taken into account when assessing the information needs of patients in the terminal phase of life.

It is critical that nurses have the necessary training and skills for effective therapeutic communication with terminally ill patients and their relatives.