Surgeon Communication and Family Understanding of Patient Prognosis in Critically Ill Surgical Patients: A Qualitative Investigation Informs Resident Training.

Purpose: Surgeons treating critically ill patients must work with family members making medical decisions for the patient. These surrogate decision makers depend on providers' high-quality communication and empathy to facilitate medical decisions. There is growing evidence of poor quality of communication and delayed family engagement in the intensive care unit, and of a decline in empathy over the course of a surgeon's clinical training.