Nurse-Led Family Support Intervention for Families of Critically Ill Patients

Does a nurse-led, interprofessional, multicomponent family support intervention in adult intensive care units (ICUs) improve family satisfaction with care, communication, and cognitive and emotional support to families of critically ill patients compared with usual care?In this cluster randomized trial in 16 ICUs with 885 family members, the family support intervention, which started at admission and followed up with families after the ICU phase, resulted in a small, but statistically significant improvement in the Family Satisfaction with ICU survey (score, 81.78 vs 79.39 out of 100).A nurse-led family support intervention may improve quality of family care in the ICU; incorporating it as a standard component of ICU care may be of value.

Corresponding Author: Rahel Naef, PhD, RN, Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Universitätstrasse 84, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland (rahel.naef@uzh.ch).

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