TABLE 1.

Typical Information Shared in a Family Care Conference

Introductions, reasons and goals for the conference	• Goals should be ascertained from both patient/family members and professional care providers
Medical condition	• Brief history • Current treatments • Current symptoms • Recent changes
Prognostic information	• Anticipated prognosis with and without disease-directed treatments • Likely level of functioning under each scenario
Patient/Family psychosocial information	• How patient and family define quality of life • Family communication dynamics • Current stressors • Developmental issues of patient and/or family
Decision making	• Obtain consensus on decisions to be made • Obtain consensus on treatment decisions • Anticipate future decisions that may need to be made

Note. Adapted from Weissman, Quill, and Arnold (2010a, 2010b).