Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Nov 2023
Vagueness in Goals-of-Care Conferences for Critically Ill Patients: Types of Hedge Language Used by Physicians.
Hedge language is a category of language that refers to words or phrases that make statements "fuzzier." We sought to understand how physicians use hedge language during goals-of-care conferences in the ICU. ⋯ Hedge language is ubiquitous in physician-surrogate communication during goals-of-care conferences in the ICU and can be used to introduce vagueness to statements in ways beyond expressing uncertainty. It is not known how hedge language impacts decision-making or clinician-surrogate interactions. This study prioritizes specific types of hedge language for future research based on their frequency and novelty.