| Understanding of the illness |
| Tell me about your illness. What is your understanding of your condition? |
| What do you think about why it happened? |
| What have you been told about its seriousness? |
| What kinds of questions do you have? |
| Important hopes |
| What are you most hoping for? What else? |
| Biggest worries |
| What are your biggest worries? Can you tell me more? |
| Personal coping strategies |
| How are you managing? |
| How are your spirits? |
| When you have had to face difficult situations in the past, how did you cope? |
| Existential and spiritual beliefs |
| What gives you strength as you think about the future of your health? |
| How are you making sense of this illness and why it happened? |
| Do you currently have any religious or spiritual practice? Does it help you? How? |
| Do you have any personal spiritual beliefs? How do they help? |
| Closure and reconciliation |
| Are there ways that you can help your family prepare for what lies ahead with your illness? |
| Do you have relationships that need healing? |
| Preferences for information giving |
| Do you like to get all the details about your condition, or rather just the big picture? |
| How much do you want to know about what lies ahead with your illness? |
| Preferences about decision-making |
| When we need to make decisions about your health care, do you manage it alone or share it with family or leave it to the family or doctors? |
| Goals, values, and preferences |
| What's most important to you now? |
| What matters most to you for the future? |
| If you become sicker, how much are you willing to go through for the possibility of gaining more time? |
| What abilities are so critical to your life that you can't imagine living without them? |
