title: A Systematic Review of Family Meeting Tools in Palliative and Intensive Care Settings.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Family meetings can be challenging, requiring a range of skills and participation. We sought to identify tools available to aid the conduct of family meetings in palliative, hospice, and intensive care unit settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  We systematically reviewed PubMed for articles describing family meeting tools and abstracted information on tool type, usage, and content.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 16 articles containing 23 tools in 7 categories: meeting guide (n = 8), meeting planner (n = 5), documentation template (n = 4), meeting strategies (n = 2), decision aid/screener (n = 2), family checklist (n = 1), and training module (n = 1). We found considerable variation across tools in usage and content and a lack of tools supporting family engagement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is need to standardize family meeting tools and develop tools to help family members effectively engage in the process.
authors.affiliation: David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA asinger@rand.org.
authors.forename: Adam E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.affiliation: T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Tayla
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ash
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ochotorena
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA Quality Improvement Resource Center, Greater Los Angeles VA Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA, USA Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Karl A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.affiliation: Quality Improvement Resource Center, Greater Los Angeles VA Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: Quality Improvement Resource Center, Greater Los Angeles VA Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA, USA Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Lebanon, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Shreve
authors.affiliation: RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Sangeeta C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Ahluwalia
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D003142:Communication; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004282:Documentation; D005190:Family; D006126:Group Processes; D006738:Hospices / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011368:Professional-Family Relations
keywords: caregivers; communication; interdisciplinary communication; palliative care/psychology; professional–family relations; review