Facilitating acceptance of a patient's decision to stop treatment.

Quality of life is a very personal issue. When illness reaches a point where life is believed to be intolerable, people may choose to stop treatment. This paper presents an intervention model for psychiatric liaison nurses to utilize in order to facilitate acceptance of such a decision. The model contains two parts: assessment and intervention. The assessment process can be broken down into five parts to include the assessment of self, patient, family, nursing, and medical staff. Intervention strategies to expedite acceptance include opening communication, resolving conflict, being a go-between, and advocating for the patient.