Family-centered care is an innovative approach to planning, delivering, and evaluating health care that is governed by mutually beneficial partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families. In this issue Mitchell et al
evaluated the effects on family-centered care of ICU nurses partnering with families to provide fundamental care to their relative
found increased family respect, collaboration, and support.
A good resource for implementation of this model is The Institute for Family-Centered Care, a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to advance the understanding and practice of patient- and family-centered care in hospitals and other health care settings. This group is endorsed by AACN. The Institute for Family-Centered Care provides a Web site with helpful resources for health care providers and educators at http://www.familycenteredcare.org/index.html.
See Article, pp 543–553
Do emotions directly affect cardiac disease or outcomes of therapy? In this issue Song et...