A Systematic Review of Family Meeting Tools in Palliative and Intensive Care Settings

Adam E Singer; Tayla Ash; Claudia Ochotorena; Karl A Lorenz; Kelly Chong; Scott T Shreve; Sangeeta C Ahluwalia

doi:10.1177/1049909115594353

A Systematic Review of Family Meeting Tools in Palliative and Intensive Care Settings

Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2016 Sep;33(8):797-806. doi: 10.1177/1049909115594353. Epub 2015 Jul 26.

Authors

Adam E Singer¹, Tayla Ash², Claudia Ochotorena³, Karl A Lorenz⁴, Kelly Chong⁵, Scott T Shreve⁶, Sangeeta C Ahluwalia⁷

Affiliations

¹ David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA asinger@rand.org.
² T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
³ College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁴ RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA Quality Improvement Resource Center, Greater Los Angeles VA Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA, USA Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁵ Quality Improvement Resource Center, Greater Los Angeles VA Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Quality Improvement Resource Center, Greater Los Angeles VA Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA, USA Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Lebanon, PA, USA.
⁷ RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Purpose: Family meetings can be challenging, requiring a range of skills and participation. We sought to identify tools available to aid the conduct of family meetings in palliative, hospice, and intensive care unit settings.

Methods: We systematically reviewed PubMed for articles describing family meeting tools and abstracted information on tool type, usage, and content.

Results: We identified 16 articles containing 23 tools in 7 categories: meeting guide (n = 8), meeting planner (n = 5), documentation template (n = 4), meeting strategies (n = 2), decision aid/screener (n = 2), family checklist (n = 1), and training module (n = 1). We found considerable variation across tools in usage and content and a lack of tools supporting family engagement.

Conclusion: There is need to standardize family meeting tools and develop tools to help family members effectively engage in the process.

Keywords: caregivers; communication; interdisciplinary communication; palliative care/psychology; professional–family relations; review.

Publication types

Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Checklist
Communication*
Decision Support Techniques
Documentation
Family*
Group Processes*
Hospices / organization & administration*
Humans
Intensive Care Units / organization & administration*
Palliative Care / organization & administration*
Patient Care Planning
Patient Care Team / organization & administration
Professional-Family Relations

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding