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Understanding Goals of Care Statements and Preferences Among Patients and Their Surrogates in the Medical ICU
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Understanding Goals of Care Statements and Preferences Among Patients and Their Surrogates in the Medical ICU

Debra Brandt, Laura Shinkunas, Thomas Gehlbach and Lauris Kaldjian
Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, Vol.14(2), pp.126-132
2012
DOI: 10.1097/NJH.0b013e3182389dd2
PMCID: PMC3298117
PMID: 22423214
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3298117View
Open Access

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Treatment decisions should be based on patients' goals of care to provide an ethical, patient-centered framework for decision-making. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding about how patients' and surrogates' goals of care are communicated and interpreted in an MICU. METHODS: One hundred patients admitted to an MICU, or their surrogates, responded to an open-ended question about goals of care for their hospitalization followed by a closed-ended question regarding their most important goal of care. Investigators interpreted participants' open-ended responses and compared these interpretations with participants' closed-ended, most-important-goal selections. RESULTS: Investigators' interpretations of participants' open-ended goals of care responses matched participants' closed-ended most important goal of care in only 28 of 100 cases. However, there was good inter-rater reliability between investigators in their interpretation of participants' open-ended responses, with agreement in 78 of 100 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should be cautious in interpreting patients' or surrogates' responses to open-ended questions about goals of care. A shared understanding of goals of care may be facilitated by alternating open-ended and closed-ended questions to clarify patients' or surrogates' responses.

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