Qualitative Evidence on Families’ Experiences with an Adult Family Member in a Critical Care Area: A systematic review

Abstract

Review question/objective: The intention of this review is to understand and illuminate the total experience of critical care families and to use this information to generate recommendations for best practices, as an anticipated outcome. As such, this review intends to synthesize available knowledge about family experiences and needs so that conclusions can be drawn that: firstly, are directly relevant to practice; and secondly, provide an understanding of how family members perceive and articulate these experiences. More specifically, the review seeks to: • Identify the ways in which the experiences of having a family member in a critical care area shape their perceptions • Examine what it is like to have a family member in a critical care area in order to implement best practice in the care of families • Describe and recommend best practice specific to identified needs of critical care families. Inclusion criteria: Types of participants: The review will consider the experiences of family members with an adult family member who is a patient in a general critical care unit or intensive care unit or specialized critical care areas such as: burn units, trauma units, coronary care units, neurosurgical intensive care units (herein referred to as critical care areas). Participants may include: firstly, family members and patients; and secondly, nurses or other hospital staff who can provide information about the perceptions and experiences of family members. Types of intervention(s)/phenomena of interest: This component of the review will consider the following phenomena of interest: The experiences, thoughts, feelings, opinions and expressed needs of family members with an adult family member in a critical care area. This could take the form of addressing the behavior of families. Types of outcomes: Outcomes of interest are closely connected to families’ experiences of adult family members who are patients in critical care areas. These outcomes may be positive or negative, as expressed by family or reported by patient and/or staff.