ABSTRACT
Time units can be from minutes to months, varying with the nature of the illness and the patient's location in the hospital. In combination, certainty and time yield four types of "death expectations": certain death at a known time, certain death at an unknown time, uncertain death but a known time when the question will be resolved, and uncertain death and unknown time when the question will be resolved. From a sociological perspective, the important thing about any diagnosis, whether correctly established or not, is that it involves questions of definition. Nurses' definitions of the patient's illness status—that is, their expectations—affect their behavior toward him. Doctors vary considerably as to whether they give nurses a legitimate basis for death expectations. The staff may be surprised by unexpected changes in the expected passage of patients toward death. The most surprising changes is the sudden death, or onset of death, of a patient who previously had prognoses of doubtful certainty and time.
