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A qualitative study of family involvement in decisions about life support in the intensive care unit

Jennifer Kryworuchko1, Dawn Stacey, Wendy E Peterson

  • 1School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. jennifer.kryworuchko@usask.ca

The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care
|July 9, 2011
PubMed

We explored family involvement in decisions about life support interventions in the intensive care unit study using a critical incident technique to focus on specific case exemplars contributed by participants. A total of 6 family members and 9 health care professionals were interviewed. Participants described 2 options (life support or comfort care) and values associated with options: maintaining quality of life, surviving critical illness, minimizing pain and suffering, not being attached to machines, needing adjustment time, and judicious health care resource use. Barriers to involvement included not being offered alternative options; no specific trigger to initiate decision making; dominant influence of professionals' values; and families lacking understandable information. Family members are unlikely to engage in decision making unless professionals identify the decision and address other barriers to family involvement.

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