Clinician Self-Disclosure in Palliative Care: Describing a Taxonomy and Proposing a Communication Tool

Indrany Datta-Barua*, Joshua Hauser

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

While patient self-disclosure is expected and necessary in the clinical setting, clinicians generally minimize their own self-disclosure, a practice largely guided by the boundaries of the fiduciary relationship. At the same time, many clinicians can recall a time when they made a self-disclosure to a patient, and it seemed to benefit the treatment relationship, if not the treatment itself. We reviewed literature from a variety of fields describing opinions, theories and limited data about the effects of clinician self-disclosure. Based on our findings, we posit that clinician self-disclosure has the potential to be a beneficial communication tool in palliative medicine, but like any intervention, it is not without risks. Thus, we propose a potential strategy to guide clinicians in thinking about self-disclosures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)987-993
Number of pages7
JournalAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Volume40
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2023

Keywords

  • boundaries
  • burnout
  • communication
  • countertransference
  • relationship
  • self-disclosure
  • time-out
  • transference

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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