Expectations and needs of relatives of critically ill patients in the emergency department

Abstract

Background: The care of critically ill patients is a strong indicator of service quality provided in the emergency department. Since families are the major social support sources, assessing the family members’ needs may reduce their anxiety and depression owing to the acute situation of their loved ones while improving the patients’ recovery. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the expectations and needs of relatives of critically ill patients to formulate solutions to improve the quality of emergency department service. Methods: We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional survey of 873 relatives of nontraumatic, critically ill patients who completed the Turkish version of the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory in the emergency department of a university hospital in Turkey. The needs statements were evaluated under five subheadings: meaning, proximity, communication, comfort, and support. Results: In total, 249 (28.5%) participants were females and 624 (71.5%) were males (mean age, 41.79 years). The “meaning” category was given the highest priority, followed by “communication,” with average points of 3.75 and 3.57, respectively. The most important needs were being informed regularly about the patient’s condition and being assured that the patient is under the best possible care, whereas personal, physical, and emotional needs were the least important. Conclusion: Relatives of critically ill patients primarily focus on the quality of patients’ care. Creating a positive rapport based on trust and providing a healthcare environment where the expectations and needs of relatives are met should be prioritized by emergency department physicians, nurses, and other staff while caring for critically ill patients.

Lived Experience of Nurses in Caring for Persons With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Rural Areas of East Java Indonesia: A Phenomenological Study

“…Therefore, nurses' communication about client emergency information is urgently needed to increase family trust. Good and directed communication (focus) on conditions experienced by clients when emergencies have a major impact on patients and families (Firstiana et al, 2017;Jainurakhma et al, 2017;Ocak & Avsarogullari, 2019).…”

“…That communication is also meant to calm the family who experience confusion when they find family members lying unconscious, and fears that occur in the family's mind about the death of the client (Nugroho, 2017), and the family's ignorance in providing first aid during emergency events such as cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (Nugroho, 2017;Rosyid et al, 2018;Winarni, 2017). They need to be given information about the emergency conditions experienced by clients (Herawati & Faradilla, 2017;Paputungan et al, 2018), and what efforts can be done to help clients, both personally, conditions physical, and requires emotional reinforcement when dealing with the condition of one of their family members who are threatened with death, as well as how the life expectancy of this critical client (Ocak & Avsarogullari, 2019;H. R. Siregar & Antoni, 2017).…”

O conforto em contexto de urgência: A experiência da família da pessoa em situação crítica

“…Such attitudes/interactions are comforting communication skills, understood as care providers' structuring patterns. They facilitate the adaptation to the situation experienced and attribute meaning to the health professional/patient/family relationship, as when transmitting information regarding the patient's condition (Ocak & Avsarogullari, 2019;Sousa, 2020). Establishing an authentic relationship that promotes the understanding of the situation is a humanized and adjusted response to the experience, which nurses can mobilize through the network of social and emotional support and information to family members (Freitas et al, 2012).…”

“…Developing interpersonal skills combines gestures, postures, and words, in which the way of being in a relationship stands out as an approach strategy. Information and clarification about the patient's clinical condition in an accurate and up-to-date manner, the religious and social assistance services, and the surrounding environment are highlighted as forms of comforting that promote more significant control over one's health care (Ocak & Avsarogullari, 2019;Ponte et al, 2019). In the structure of comfort, the interaction with the health team proves vital as it allows for communicating concerns, fears, and worries and sharing knowledge (Mendes, 2018).…”

“…Most of the time, it does not have the best conditions for welcoming patients and families, privacy, individuality, therapeutic interactions, and the timely and appropriate provision of information. These aspects are essential for delivering humanized and comforting care to hospitalized patients (Kalocsai et al, 2018;Ocak & Avsarogullari, 2019). In the complex emergency service setting, comfort is a necessity and should be an objective and planned nursing intervention aimed at patients and their families.…”