Factors associated with pediatric critical care attending follow-up with families after the death of a patient: a national survey with an experimental design.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate components of the family-physician relationship that affect the likelihood of self-reported physician follow-up with bereaved families.


METHODS
Randomized, split-sample, national survey.


METHODS
Two hundred four pediatric critical care attending physicians in the United States (54% response rate).


RESULTS
Subjects were randomly assigned to respond to differing versions of three clinical vignettes varying in each instance in: 1) the patient's length of stay in the intensive care unit; 2) the depiction of the degree of trust of the family toward medical staff; or 3) the depiction of the family's emotional reactions. Subjects then reported their likelihood of following-up with the family after the patient's death. Physicians were more likely to report they would contact families depicted as having a trusting relationship with staff (p = .01). Variations in depicted length of patient stay (p = .5) and in the nature of the family's emotional reaction (p = .9) were not associated with self-reported likelihood of follow-up (p = .5). The only difference observed regarding the method of contacting families after a death was that participants were more likely to say they would attend the funeral of the patient with a trustful family (p < .01).


CONCLUSIONS
Pediatric critical care attending physicians were more likely to report following-up with a bereaved family and attend a funeral in a vignette portraying a trustful relationship between the family and staff.
University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Santiago
S
Borasino
Wynne E
WE
Morrison
Jordan
J
Silberman
Chris
C
Feudtner
D001601:Bereavement; D003422:Critical Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003643:Death; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D008875:Middle Aged; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D035502:Trust; D014481:United States