Promoting Excellence : Comprehensive Bibliography and Resource Page for Critical Care End-of-Life Issues

Updated June 26, 2002

This bibliography and resource materials were devised by the Critical Care Workgroup to be a resource for clinicians, researchers, and administrators working to improve end-of-life care in the ICU. It includes a bibliography of books, review articles, and research articles concerning end-of-life care in the ICU setting. For those articles that are listed and abstracted on the National Library of Medicine database PubMed, links are available from the article titles to their PubMed abstract. The Web site also includes some example protocols, order forms, and clinical pathways that have been developed at a number of U.S. hospitals with the goal of improving care to patients in the ICU. These documents are downloadable in PDF format. In addition, there is a downloadable Endnote database that contains references for all books and articles referenced on this page.

Full text of certain parts of this bibliography are available in PDF format. To view them, you'll need to download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader if you don't have it already. In addition, an EndNote file [604 KB] containing most of the articles referred to in this bibliography is available for download. To view this file, you'll need to download and install a trial version of EndNote if you don't have it already.

Details of Search Methods

Annotated Bibliography from 2000-2001
By Judith E. Nelson, MD, JD

List of Reviews and Overviews
1. Medline listed journal articles
2. Books

List of Peer-reviewed Research Articles by Category
1. Withholding/withdrawing life support
2. Communication with patient/family
3. Patient preferences for ICU care/ACP
4. Psychosocial/spiritual/bereavement
5. Pain and symptoms
6. Staff support
7. Prognostication tools
8. Interventions to improve end-of-life care
  1. Controlled trials
  2. Program evaluation
9. Surveys on clinician attitudes and practices
10. Legal and licensure
11. Ethics Consultations
12. Economic
13. Measurement/outcome measures/satisfaction
14. Futility
15. Pediatric

Curricula

ICU Policies and Clinical Pathways
1. Withdrawal of life sustaining treatments
  1. University of California, San Francisco General Hospital - Guidelines for Withdrawal of Mechanical Ventilation/Life Support
    PDF 921 KB
    and for Pharmacologic Intervention during Termination of Ventilator Support
    PDF 848 KB
  2. The Johns Hopkins Medical Nursing Service - Procedure for Withdrawal of Life Support in the MICU/MCP
    PDF 172 KB
  3. Saint Thomas Hospital, Vanderbilt - Terminal Weaning from Ventilator Protocol
    PDF 21 KB
2. DNR Policies
  1. Communication of Inpatient DNR and Limited Therapy Orders
3. Pain assessment and management
  1. Johns Hopkins Hospital Interdisciplinary Clinical Practice Manual - Pain, Assessment and Management
    PDF 238 KB

ICU Order Forms
1. Withdrawal of life sustaining treatments
  1. Harborview Medical Center - UW Medical Center - Comfort Care Orders for the Withdrawal of Life Support in the ICU
  2. Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre - Withdrawal of Life Support Checklist
    PDF 102 KB
  3. Johns Hopkins Hospital - Withdrawal of Life Support
    PDF 159 KB
  4. Saint Thomas Hospital, Vanderbilt - Physician Order Sheet for Terminal Weaning from Ventilator
    PDF 15 KB
2. DNR order forms
  1. Doctor's Order to Limit Inpatient Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
  2. San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center - Physician's Orders
    PDF 881 KB
  3. Harborview Medical Center - UW Medical Center - Do Not Attempt Resuscitation Order
  4. Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre - Physician Orders for the Level of Medical Treatment
    PDF 95 KB

Promoting Excellence in End of-Life Care is a National Program Office of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation dedicated to long-term changes in health care institutions to substantially improve care for dying persons and their families. Visit PromotingExcellence.org for more resources.