When a hospice patient is anxious about unfinished business, which nursing approach best supports the patient?

• A. Protesting the unfairness of death
• B. Anxiety about unfinished business
• C. Address unfinished business and facilitate closure
• D. Restlessness about the uncertainty of prognosis

Answer: (C)

When someone is dying, unresolved matters can linger as a major source of anxiety. The best nursing approach is to address the unfinished business directly and help the patient reach a sense of closure. This means inviting the patient to name what remains unsettled, facilitating conversations with loved ones, and enabling concrete steps that bring resolution. Practical and symbolic actions—completing important tasks, arranging final messages or letters, making peace with relationships, and creating rituals or legacies—provide a sense of control and peace. Involving the interdisciplinary team, including social work and spiritual care, supports this process and tailors support to the patient’s values and culture.

This approach specifically targets the source of distress—things left unsaid or undone at the end of life—and helps the patient move toward acceptance and peace. Protesting the unfairness of death, or focusing solely on restlessness about prognosis, doesn’t directly resolve these personal unfinished business issues and is less likely to yield the same sense of closure.