Rapid Review of Family Caregiver Engagement in Hospice and End-of-Life Patient Care: Implications for Nursing Practice.

This rapid review provides an overview of active family engagement (defined as supporting the patient psychologically, physically, spiritually, or emotionally) in hospice and end-of-life care settings across the lifespan. A librarian-assisted search of the CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) database over the past 5 years (English language only) yielded 1928 articles; 22 of these articles met the inclusion criteria for data extraction. The reviewed literature emphasized the importance of family engagement in hospice and end-of-life care, highlighting the need for effective communication, emotional support, and tailored interventions that nurses may use to support family caregivers. The literature highlighted opportunities to further educate and train palliative and hospice nurses on evidence-based and replicable approaches to supporting families as they deliver care at the end of life.