A Systematic Review of Family Meeting Tools in Palliative and Intensive Care Settings.
Adam E Singer, Tayla Ash, Claudia Ochotorena and 4 others
PMID 26213225WHAT IT FOUND
Family meeting tools for palliative and ICU care are mostly provider-facing agendas, planners, and templates.
Most were not tested, so they may structure meetings but do not prove better patient or family outcomes.
Key findings
01The review identified 23 family meeting tools from 16 included articles, spanning premeeting, during-meeting, and postmeeting stages.
02Only 4 of the 16 included articles formally tested tools with patients and families; 3 showed significant impacts and 1 did not.
03The identified tools were mainly provider-facing, including guides, planners, templates, strategies, screeners, and training, with one family checklist.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The search may have missed relevant articles, and it was limited to English-language literature from the United States, Canada, England, and Australia. The included articles were heterogeneous and had limited tool information, so a meta-analysis was not possible. Most included articles did not formally test their tools in clinical environments with patients and families. The tested studies used mostly pre-post designs or a controlled trial, and some interventions combined multiple tools, so the contribution of any single tool cannot be separated.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the availability of family meeting tools as proof that they improve patient or family outcomes. Most included articles did not formally test tools with patients and families, and the tested tools were often part of larger multifaceted interventions, so the contribution of any single tool cannot be separated.