The technological complexity of the ICU is often focused on saving lives however, it is
frequently a place to support the dying. Because of the serious nature of critical illness …

Critically ill patients are often unable to make decisions about life-sustaining treatments and
surrogate decisionmakers are relied upon. However, it is unclear how accurately the …

Purpose: Intensive care unit patients rarely have decisional capacity and often surrogates
make clinical decisions on their behalf. Little is known about how surrogate characteristics …

Approximately 20% of Americans spend time in an ICU around the time of their death, and
most deaths follow a decision to limit life-sustaining therapies. 1, 2 Many factors contribute to …

Objectives: Although shared decision making requires clinicians to discuss the patient's
values and preferences, little is known about the extent to which this occurs with surrogates …

Background Impaired capacity of patients necessitates the use of surrogates to make
decisions on behalf of patients. Little is known about surrogate decision-making in the …

Objectives: Family members commonly make medical decision for patients with chronic
critical illness. This study examines how family members approach this decision-making role …

Background A better understanding of the perceptions of family members in making
surrogate decisions for loved ones during intensive care is needed to inform the …

Methods: We performed a before/after design prospective study, comparing a decision aid to
usual care control among 30 surrogates (10 control [before] and 20 intervention [after]) of …

Background: Surrogates of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) want honest
prognostic information, but they also want to hear good news. There has been little …