Advance Care Planning and Chronic Kidney Disease: What Do Patients Know and What Do They Want?

There is a gap in the research literature regarding advance care planning with this population of patients. This article reports on a study about the end-of-life knowledge, needs, and preferences of patients on hemodialysis - as reported by patients - within a hospital or community-based setting that addresses this gap. Data were collected using a survey method; non-probability, consecutive sampling (n=133) resulted in a high response rate of 64.

Quality of life in the contemporary politics of healthcare: … but what is a life?

'Quality of life' (QoL) is a ubiquitous phrase in medicine. There is considerable literature on the meaning of 'quality' in 'quality of life', but little on the meaning of 'life'. And yet, rooted in measurements of QoL, is a conceptualization of 'a life' used to judge 'quality'.