Family-centered care is an approach to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare that is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships between patients, patients’ families, and healthcare providers. As such, it is founded on the understanding of the integral role that patients’ family members play in the health, well-being, and recovery of patients with acute cardiac disease and critically ill patients. Critical care nurses benefit from advisory councils by having a better understanding of the needs of patients and patients’ families from the perspective of the patients and the patients’ family members and integrating this information into systems and processes that improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care. Patient and family advisory councils belong to an integrated set of strategies used by health organizations interested in instilling a family-centered care philosophy.

In this article, we describe the process used at the John Nasseff Heart Hospital (JNHH) in St. Paul, Minn,...

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