Palliative Care Consultations in the Intensive Care Unit: Utilizing Criteria to Increase Referrals

Background: In the intensive care unit (ICU), patients and families face life-changing decisions. Palliative Care (PC) assists patients and families to understand difficult diagnoses while focusing on comfort and quality of life (World Health Organization, [WHO], 2016). Methods: A standardized checklist determined which patients in a Midwestern urban ICU setting were appropriate for PC referral. Additionally, nurse comfort levels with PC referral from the ICU were measured before and after implementation. Results: Statistical significance was found in nurses’ comfort regarding when a PC referral from ICU was appropriate. Conclusions: Standardization of PC referral criteria from the ICU can increase nurses’ comfort levels regarding when a referral is appropriate and improve consistency among provider referrals. Additional studies are needed to translate the referral tool across other disciplines and measure potential improvement in patient and family satisfaction with care