ABSTRACT
In our personal lives, we are aware that our most meaningful communications take place in the context of warm and trusting relationships. As nurses, we should try, therefore, to relate to dying people and their relatives on a personal as well as a professional level. Thompson et al. (1983) described the relationships which can develop between dying people and professional carers as 'covenant' relationships, in contrast to the code and contract relationships more appropriate in other situations.* Carers are at the limit of what they can do in a curative sense and they offer the patient palliative care, support and befriending. By encouraging dying people to be involved in decisions about their own care and treatment
whenever possible, they ensure that those aspects of care which enhance quality of life receive priority.
