The dual purposes of the dual process model of social cognition in critical care communication: identifying clinician and family differences in expectation development, and predicting intervention success

Abstract

This project is concerned with clinician and family communication in critical care. In this thesis I address the development of expectations by clinicians and family members in critical care settings, the processes involved in shared decision making, and the relation between expectations, communication, and decision making. Observations of critical care communication were conducted as part of this study, and clinician communication with families was evaluated in the context of a family-centered approach. An explanatory model of clinician and family differences in social cognition is presented, and a predictive theory for evaluating communication intervention success based on principles of systems integration is proposed.