Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr 17;19(4):e0299112.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299112. eCollection 2024.

"They must have seen it, you know." Body talk, extension talk, and action talk: A qualitative study on how palliative care patients and their significant others express experiencing these nonverbal cues

Charlotta Öhrling  1 , Elisabet Sernbo  2 , Inger Benkel  1   3 , Ulla Molander  1   3 , Stina Nyblom  1   3
Affiliations

"They must have seen it, you know." Body talk, extension talk, and action talk: A qualitative study on how palliative care patients and their significant others express experiencing these nonverbal cues

Charlotta Öhrling et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Communication about life-threatening disease and palliative care is essential but often experienced as difficult by those concerned and has mainly been studied in terms of its verbal components. Despite the fundamentality of nonverbal communication, its dimensions in care, especially in the communication by patients and their significant others, has not been as extensively examined. Drawing on a secondary qualitative content analysis of data from 23 interviews-15 with patients in specialized palliative home care in Sweden and 8 with their significant others-this study aims at understanding and characterizing how patients verbally express experiences of conveying nonverbal cues about life-threatening disease and its consequences and how their significant others express perceiving these cues. Patients expressed experiences of nonverbal communication in the form of cues conveying meaning about their disease and its consequences, often beyond their control. Whether and how the patients reinforced these cues verbally, depended on individual needs, care for others, and evaluations of relationships. Significant others acknowledged the presence of nonverbal cues and tried to interpret their meaning. Both patients and significant others emphasized the importance of nonverbal cues and actively related to how cues in the form of bodily appearance, aids, objects and acts, serve communicative functions about disease and its consequences. These dimensions of nonverbal communication are characterized as: body talk, extension talk and action talk. This study contributes to an international knowledge base on the complexities of nonverbal communicative aspects in these dimensions and how it affects patients and significant others. Professionals should be aware that dimensions of care, such as prescribed aids, from the patients' perspective can be perceived as nonverbal cues that might "speak of" disease progression.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

References

    1. Collins A, McLachlan S-A, Philip J. Communication about palliative care: A phenomenological study exploring patient views and responses to its discussion. Palliative medicine. 2018;32(1):133–42. doi: 10.1177/0269216317735247 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sen AF. Communication and Human Rights. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2015;174:2813–7.
    1. Collins LG, Schrimmer A, Diamond J, Burke J. Evaluating verbal and non-verbal communication skills, in an ethnogeriatric OSCE. Patient Educ Couns. 2011;83(2):158–62. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2010.05.012 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Benkel I, Molander U. How do Physicians Talk and what do They Say in the Difficult Conversations with Patients and their Loved Ones in Palliative Care? A Qualitative Study to Investigate Strategies to Help Improve Difficult Conversations. Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine. 2016;6(5).
    1. Qama E, Diviani N, Grignoli N, Rubinelli S. Health professionals’ view on the role of hope and communication challenges with patients in palliative care: A systematic narrative review. Patient education and counseling. 2022;105(6):1470–87. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2021.09.025 - DOI - PubMed