Families Who Micromanage: “Please Come Help Us with This Family – They Are Micromanaging Everything!”

Abstract

In this chapter, the author describes a phenomenon well-known to healthcare professionals and clinical ethics consultants but which has not yet resulted in a significant literature, namely the “micromanaging family.” Such families try to exert a high degree of control over clinical and technical matters and procedures that are entailed by the treatment goals to which they have seemingly agreed. This stance makes caring for the patient time consuming and exhausting for the healthcare professionals. The author suggests that the goal of appropriate medical care is paramount, and caregivers must seek to develop working relationships with the family that facilitate achieving this goal. Strategies such as commonly expressing compassion and sympathy for the family can further collaboration. Practical strategies and processes to follow should such situations prove intractable are also reviewed.