Defining Clinical Attunement: A Ubiquitous But Undertheorized Aspect of Palliative Care

Attunement, the process of understanding and responding to another's spoken and unspoken needs, is a fundamental concept of human development and the basis of meaningful relationships. To specialize the concept of attunement for palliative care, this article introduces clinical attunement. This...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of palliative medicine Vol. 24; no. 12; p. 1757
Main Authors Jacobsen, Juliet, Brenner, Keri O, Shalev, Daniel, Rosenberg, Leah B, Jackson, Vicki A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.12.2021
Subjects
Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing
Humans
Neoplasms - therapy
Palliative Care - psychology
psychological
prognosis
attunement
coping
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Summary:Attunement, the process of understanding and responding to another's spoken and unspoken needs, is a fundamental concept of human development and the basis of meaningful relationships. To specialize the concept of attunement for palliative care, this article introduces clinical attunement. This term accounts for how palliative care clinicians must repeatedly balance patients' readiness to talk about the future with the cadence of the illness and need for medical decision making. Using the case of Gloria, an example patient living with cancer, this article discusses three skills to foster clinical attunement: asking, repairing disconnections, and offering containment. It is the fourth in a series exploring the psychological elements of palliative care.
ISSN:1557-7740
DOI:10.1089/jpm.2021.0442