Under the radar: Contributions of the SUPPORT nurses

SUPPORT (The Study to Understand Prognoses and references for Outcomes and Risks of Treatment) failed to produce changes in 5 quantitative outcome mea sures of care received by nearly 10,000 seriously ill patients in major tea ching hospitals. This article reports a content analysis of documents produ ced during the SUPPORT study by the 17 nurses who delivered the interventio n. "Effective communication" emerged as the central category, with "educati onal support" and "emotional support"' as subcategories. "Readiness" of pat ients and families to accept prognoses, engage in decision making,. and the like also arose from this analysis as an important concept. The investigat ion suggests that the SUPPORT intervention did have an important impact, al beit not one captured by the main effects analysis.