Background

Recently, nursing support for surrogate decision-making for lifesustaining treatment by patients' family members during hospitalization receives extensive attention, as well as in medical emergency care center. Yet its appropriate way has not been discussed sufficiently.

Aim

The aim of this study was to specify future challenges for its research by discussion about how nursing support for patients' family members concerning surrogate decision-making for lifesustaining treatment should be in medical emergency care center.

Methods

Based on the tentative theories shown by previous studies and well-known facts, the author, experts, and clinical nurses in critical care discussed the future challenge of research about support for patients' family members concerning surrogate decision-making for life-sustaining treatment of patients in medical emergency care center .

Results

The following four challenges were specified through discussion. 1) To specify the difficulties in supporting for discussion about concrete nursing action or support, 2) To clarify the environmental factors which hamper the support in order to arrange the environmental settings, 3) To invent concrete support which is practicable for nurses who don’t have enough time, and 4) To implement invented concrete nursing support in clinic, which gives back the concrete case with educational function.