Aim To describe published literature on the needs and experiences of family members of adults admitted to intensive care and interventions to improve family satisfaction and psychological well‐being and health. Design Scoping review. Methods Several selective databases were searched. English‐language articles were retrieved, and data extracted on study design, sample size, sample characteristics and outcomes measured. Results From 469 references, 43 studies were identified for inclusion. Four key themes were identified: (a) Different perspectives on meeting family needs; (b) Family satisfaction with care in intensive care; (c) Factors having an impact on family health and well‐being and their capacity to cope; and (d) Psychosocial interventions. Unmet informational and assurance needs have an impact on family satisfaction and mental health. Structured written and oral information shows some effect in improving satisfaction and reducing psychological burden. Future research might include family in the design of interventions, provide details of the implementation process and have clearly identified outcomes.
386BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL 15 FEBRUARY 1975 nomenon but at least in Nottingham it seems to encompass heart attacks in the lay mind. Our study suggests that there is no point in sending a coronary ambulance in response to an emergency call for a patient with anything other than a collapse, and if the telephone operator can elicit a history with an absence of chest pain it looks as if it will be unprofitable to despatch the special vehicle.Initial experience suggests that our method of identifying patients with heart attacks from emergency calls made by members of the public is working reasonably well. As it is virtually only such calls that involve patients with symptoms for a very short period we believe it is particularly important to use our special vehicle in this way.Possibly a call-selection system might be further refined if the general public were educated about the symptoms of heart attacks and the need for urgent treatment, but any educational programme would probably increase the number of calls (both genuine and false) for the ambulance and the service might well become swamped. We do not believe that the value of a coronary ambulance service is yet sufficiently well established to justify a programme of mass education.We thank the personnel of the Nottingham city ambulance
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