Critical care family needs

Abstract

The provision of holistic care requires the inclusion of the patient's family. In the critical care setting, attention is predominantly directed to the seriously ill patient, while relatives' needs tend to be neglected. Recognition of relatives' needs is crucial to design measures to meet such requisites. In light of this, the following study aimed at exploring and identifying the needs of critical care relatives. A convenient sample of 15 family members who visited the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) patients was selected. The Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI), a valid and reliable internationally used tool, was used to collect study data. The 45 close ended statements of the research instrument have been categorised in five dimensions by the originator and an open ended question is present in the tool to identify any unlisted needs. Results demonstrate that relatives' needs weighed strongly on assurance, proximity and information needs while comfort and support needs ranked lower respectively. A very significant finding was that all the 15 study participants ranked all the seven needs of the assurance dimension of the CCFNI amongst their first 12 requisites. Furthermore, findings indicate that relatives' needs are highly concerned about what is beneficial for the patient, as opposed to needs which involve the relatives' own well being. Moreover, female (n= 10) participants have expressed a greater need to be in the proximity of the patient as opposed to male (n=5) relatives. Findings show that in comparison to participants who never visited an ITU patient to those with prior experience of critical care, consider more needs as 'very important'. These findings are discussed and recommendations both for practice and future research have been outlined.