The Illness Arc: Exploring Personal Experience and Understanding of Illness with Patients and Families

This chapter discusses the Illness Arc; the goal of which is to investigate the patient and family experience of illness, identify the disease driving patient decline, evaluate disease progression with respect to hospice criteria, and explore patient and family understanding of illness. The author emphasizes the importance of asking for clarification rather than making assumptions and posing gentle questions to plant a seed of insight to arise on its own for patients and families. Overall, the chapter focuses on establishing a compassionate and collaborative conversational space in which patients and families feel comfortable sharing their values, desires, and goals.