A Comprehensive Literature Review on Family End-Of-Life-Care Planning

A Comprehensive Literature Review on Family End-of-Life-Care Planning

Mary M. Mullen

Louisiana State University

Author Note

Mary M. Mullen, Studying Child and Family Studies, Louisiana State University.  Correspondence in reflection to this paper should be directed to Mary M. Mullen.

Email: mmulle8@lsu.edu.

A Comprehensive Literature Review on Family End-of-Life-Care Planning

The purpose of this assignment is to conduct a detailed literature review on the scholarly journal article “Perspectives of Family Members on Planning End-of-Life Care for Terminally Ill and Frail Older People”, published by Journal Of Pain And Symptom Management and written by Ineke J. van Eechoud et al (2014). This article was chosen to emphasize the need for families to understand advance care planning (ACP) and the roles in which each member plays in this process. ACP is the process in which a patient works alongside their physicians and loved ones to plan out their future health care preferences and desires. It is imperative that family members understand the process of ACP because they of the important and involved role they play emotionally, mentally, and even physically for the patient (van Eechoud et al, 2014).

Method

The researchers conducted a qualitative study and gathered data using semi-structured 56-minute (averaged) interviews. The interview questions and discussions were developed by experts in the clinical and academic field of end-of-life care. These interview sessions were audio-taped and then transcribed. Researchers in these interview sessions focused on the following topics with the interviewees: chronological and personal description of their involvement in the progression of the patient’s disease, their personal views about ACP and end-of-life care, and what their definition of their role in ACP and end-of-life care is. Almost all interviewees were interviewed alone with the exception of 5 that were conducted with another family member or the patient present. The data gathered was then organized and analyzed by four interviewers who read through he transcripts of the interviews and highlighted themes and statistical demographic data of the families (van Eechoud et al, 2014).

Participants

21 families were recruited in Flanders, Belgium by researches and participated in the study through their willingness to participate in a parallel study on ACP in terminally-ill and frail older persons. For these Dutch-speaking families to participate, they were required to be a close relative of a patient currently – or recently – in one of three settings: nursing homes, hospitals (acute geriatric ward, medical oncology ward, palliative care unit), and at-home elderly care. Three patients were in a nursing home, nine patients were in the hospital, and nine were receiving home-care. The following were the medical statistics gathered from the patients and their families: fifteen had metastatic cancer, six were frail older persons, and two were deceased by the time the interview took place. Of the interviewees, ten were spouses (six husbands and four wives), nine were children (six daughters and three sons), one was a nephew, and one was a female partner (van Eechoud et al, 2014).