Patients’ and Family Caregivers’ Goals for Care During Transitions Out of the Hospital

The aims of this study were to (a) describe the nature of patients' goals upon discharge from hospital, family caregivers' goals for their loved ones, and family caregivers' goals for themselves; (b) determine the degree of concordance with respect to the three elicited goals; (c) ascertain goal attainment across the three elicited goals; and (d) examine factors predictive of goal attainment. Our findings support the position that eliciting patient and family caregiver goals and promoting goal attainment may represent an important step toward promoting greater patient and family caregiver engagement in their care.