The inqury of family meetings holding by medical teams with terminally cancer patients and their significant others in Taiwan

23^rd World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

July 10-12, 2017 Berlin, Germany

Sheng-Fen Sung, Wan-Ping Yang, Ming-Chu Feng, la-Ling Chen and Hsiu-Chu Chiang

Department of Nursing, Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Department of Nursing, Fooyin University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Purpose: Family meetings are used to facilitate communication concerning end-of-life issues with patients and their families. The purpose of our study was to obtain preliminary information on the characteristics of family conferences that take place in ward of a hospital. Methods: Qualitative method is adopted and 125 written texts of individual interview during a 24-month period are gualitative content analysis in this study. Results: The study results indicated that there were five types of family meetings such as â�?�?truth telling and prognosisâ�?, â�?�?palliative care and do-not- resuscitate â�?, â�?�?the goals of the end-of-lifeâ�?, â�?�?discharge planning and care tipsâ�? and â�?�?artificial nutritionâ�? to address seventeen issues, including â�?�?give an ultimatum and set the bottom lineâ�?, â�?�?be neutral and ask the significant others to make decisionsâ�?, â�?�?(th defense against challengesâ�?, â�?�?make the claims to the medical authorityâ�?, â�?�?the fear of making wrong decisionsâ�?, â�?�?evaded the challenges due to their lack of abilities to make decisions and thus passed the buck to the medical teamsâ�?, â�?�?the significant others alienated the terminal cancer patients from the medical teams and evaded mutual communicationsâ�?, â�?�?entrusted themselves to the medical teams due to their confidence in the teamâ�?, â�?�?be concerned about current challenges and looked for consolationsâ�?, â�?�?left the fate to God and prayed for rest-in-peaceâ�?, â�?�?sorrowed over their end-of-lives and left no means untriedâ�?, â�?�?be reluctant to give up, but eventually compromised due to sympathiesâ�?, â�?�?felt powerless, money is crucial and inevitableâ�?, â�?�?sought for medical treatments out of love, even had to be in debtâ�?, â�?�?the selection of home- or institution-based care depended on the availability of manpowerâ�?, â�?�?the pros and cons of intravenous supplements or nasogastric feedingsâ�?, â�?�?the existence of alternate day fasting dietâ�?. Implications for practice: Further prospective studies that use validated tools to assess the content of the meetings and their impact on alleviating distress in patients and their family are needed.