Journal of palliative medicine
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Critically ill adult patients who face medical decisions often delegate others to make important decisions. Those who are authorized to make such decisions are typically family members, friends, or legally authorized representatives, often referred to as surrogates. Making medical decisions on behalf of others produces emotional distress. Spirituality and/or religion provide significant assistance to cope with this distress. We designed this study to assess the role of surrogates' spirituality and religion (S/R) coping resources during and after making medical decisions on behalf of critically ill patients. The study's aim was to understand the role that S/R resources play in coping with the lived experiences and challenges of being a surrogate. ⋯ We conclude that surrogates use several S/R and other resources to cope with stress when making decisions for critically ill adult patients. The coping resources identified in this study may guide professional chaplains and other care providers to design a patient-based and outcome-oriented intervention to reduce surrogate stress, improve communication, increase patient and surrogate satisfaction, and increase surrogate integration in patient care. We recommend ensuring that surrogates have S/R resources actively engaged in making medical decisions. Chaplains should be involved before, during, and after medical decision making to assess and address surrogate stress. An interventional research-design project to assess the effect of spiritual care on surrogate coping before, during, and after medical decision making is also recommended.