Family meetings in palliative care: Multidisciplinary clinical practice guidelines
Peter Hudson*1, Karen Quinn1, Brendan O'Hanlon2 and Sanchia Aranda3
Address:
Australia,
Work, The University of Melbourne, Level 5, 234 Queensberry Street, Carlton, Victoria 3010, Australia
Email: Peter Hudson* - peterh@medstv.unimelb.edu.au; Karen Quinn - karen.quinn@svhm.org.au;
Brendan O'Hanlon - b.o'hanlon@latrobe.edu.au; Sanchia Aranda - sanchiaa@unimelb.edu.au
* Corresponding author1Centre for Palliative Care Education & Research, St Vincent's and The University of Melbourne, PO Box 2900, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065,2The Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University, 8 Gardiner Street, Brunswick, Victoria 3056, Australia and 3School of Nursing and Social
Abstract
Background:
commonly recommended as a useful way for health care professionals to convey information,
discuss goals of care and plan care strategies with patients and family carers. Yet it seems there is
insufficient research to demonstrate the utlility of family meetings or the best way to conduct them.
This study sought to develop multidisciplinary clinical practice guidelines for conducting family
meetings in the specialist palliative care setting based on available evidence and consensus based
expert opinion.Support for family carers is a core function of palliative care. Family meetings are
Methods:
Conceptual framework; (3) Refinement of the guidelines based on feedback from an expert panel
and focus groups with multidisciplinary specialists from three palliative care units and three major
teaching hospitals in Melbourne, Australia.The guidelines were developed via the following methods: (1) A literature review; (2)
Results:
utility of family meetings in the specialist palliative care setting has occurred. Preliminary clinical
guidelines were developed by the research team, based on relevant literature and a conceptual
framework informed by: single session therapy, principles of therapeutic communication and
models of coping and family consultation. A multidisciplinary expert panel refined the content of
the guidelines and the applicability of the guidelines was then assessed via two focus groups of
multidisciplinary palliative care specialists. The complete version of the guidelines is presented.The literature review revealed that no comprehensive exploration of the conduct and
Conclusion:
palliative care patients and their family carers. The clinical guidelines developed from this study
offer a framework for preparing, conducting and evaluating family meetings. Future research and
clinical implications are outlined.Family meetings provide an opportunity to enhance the quality of care provided to
Background
Palliative care is expected to be holistic and multidisciplinary;
it is provided to both the patient and their family
[1]. Effective communication between the patient, the
family and health care providers is integral to optimal palliative
care. One method of facilitating communication is
Published: 19 August 2008
BMC Palliative Care
Received: 15 April 2008
Accepted: 19 August 2008
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-684X/7/12
© 2008 Hudson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.2008, 7:12 doi:10.1186/1472-684X-7-12