Communication in the intensive care unit about the end of life.

Communicating well in the intensive care unit is essential to providing quality critical care for the families of patients who are expected to die. There are many examples in the literature of how clinicians fall short of meeting these needs of families. There is also a developing body of literature describing approaches and tools that may have a positive impact on the perceived quality of end-of-life communication. The quality of clinician communication can be improved just as other skills that are important in the intensive care unit.