Assessing family carer satisfaction with healthcare delivery

This chapter examines the considerations that must be made when assessing family carer perceptions on the quality of healthcare delivery at the end of life. It discusses the conceptual framework for evaluating the quality of palliative care developed by Avis Donabedian and analyses the ethical considerations in assessing family carer satisfaction. The findings reveal that family carer satisfaction with care is a key outcome variable for evaluating the quality of palliative care. However, given the limitations of existing measures of quality of care, novel approaches to assessing quality and evaluating family carer perceptions of care should be developed.