Abstract
Many neurocritically ill patients and their families have high amounts of palliative
care needs. Multiple professional societies relevant to neurocritical care have released
consensus statements on meeting palliative care needs in neuroscience intensive care
units. In this review, the authors discuss the ongoing debate regarding what model
of palliative care delivery is optimal, focus on the process of shared decision making
during goals-of-care discussions, and briefly comment on transitions from intensive
care to comfort care. Regardless of an institution's model of palliative care practice,
every neurocritical care clinician should possess core competencies necessary to provide
basic, integrative palliative care for neurocritically ill patients. Given the high
proportion of neurocritically ill patients who lack decision-making capacity, communication
skills that enable clinicians to facilitate shared decision making with patients'
surrogates are of particular relevance, especially when the limitation of life support
is in the discussion. High-quality decision aids to assist neurocritical care teams
and surrogate decision makers during common goals-of-care discussions may have the
potential for further promotion of best palliative care practices.
Keywords
critical care - palliative care - shared decision making - end-of-life care