Abstract
Families of patients in the intensive care unit often experience sever stress. Understanding their experience is important for providing family-centered care during this difficult period. Little is known about the experience of families of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). To evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with acute stress symptoms among families of patients admitted to the ICU, we carried out a cross-sectional study at a teaching and advanced treatment hospital. The mean total Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) score differed significantly between planned and unplanned ICU admissions (t = 4.03, p < 0.05), indicating a main effect of admission type (F = 18.5, p < 0.05). There was no significant main effect of relationship (F = 0.05, p = 0.82) or interaction effect of admission type and relationship (F = 0.54, p = 0.47). Multiple regression analysis indicated that admission type was significantly associated with acute stress symptoms (B = 18.09, β = 0.47, p < 0.01), and explained 22% of the variance in total IES-R score. Whether a patient had a planned or unplanned admission to the ICU influenced symptoms associated with acute stress symptoms of family members more than did getting support from nurses, being the patient’s spouse, or the severity of illness of the patient.
Highlights
Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) may not be able to communicate for several reasons such as sedation, ventilator use, delirium, or coma [1]
Of the 60 families who returned the questionnaires, 54 participants reported encountering a traumatic event (82.2% prevalence of traumatic events among respondents), which resulted in 54 responses in total (Figure 1(a))
Admission type was significantly associated with acute stress disorder (B = 18.09, β = 0.47, p < 0.01)
Summary
Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) may not be able to communicate for several reasons such as sedation, ventilator use, delirium, or coma [1]. Families of patients in the ICU experience severe stress, as they often have to make decisions on behalf of the patient when the risk to the patient’s life is high [4] [5]. Recent studies show that experiencing severe mental stress during the initial period after a patient’s admission to the ICU may be one of the most influencing predictive factors for development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in family members [7] [8]. Little is known about the early experience of families of patients admitted to the ICU. It is important to understand this experience and evaluate the mental health of family members of patients in the ICU to help provide family-centered care [1]
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