Long-term persistence of quality improvements for an intensive care unit communication initiative using the VALUE strategy

Impact of a communication strategy on family satisfaction in the intensive care unit

“…Several studies, not focusing only on end‐of‐life care, were undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions on family satisfaction . In a single‐center trial, a quality improvement intervention improved nurse‐assessed outcomes and reduced ICU‐LOS before death, but had no effects on family satisfaction .…”

“…Thus, it remains unclear, how such findings can be translated into daily clinical practice and whether the positive effect can also to be found in other settings. Indeed, several investigations with varied study designs and patient populations were recently undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of different interventions on family satisfaction in the ICU, and they showed varying and sometimes conflicting results . We conducted a before‐and‐after study to determine whether a new introduced specific communication strategy involving all ICU caregivers can improve the level of satisfaction of next of kin in the ICU.…”

Developing a model of factors that influence meeting the needs of family with a relative inICU

“…The literature clearly emphasizes meeting information needs of relatives, as many studies have identified this as the greatest universal need of families in the intensive care environment (Kynoch et al, ). Providing information can appear straightforward; however, strong evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to provide information is yet to be found, with recent studies reporting nonstatistically significant findings (Kodali et al, ; McCannon et al, ; Wysham et al, ).…”

“…information is yet to be found, with recent studies reporting nonstatistically significant findings (Kodali et al, 2014;McCannon et al, 2012;Wysham et al, 2014).…”

Integrating palliative care in the ICU

“…Certain specialty training programs, such as general surgery, have been noted to be particularly deficient in palliative care education [39,40]. Some interventions have been successful at demonstrating long-term improvements in process measures such as documentations of care goals and daily family updates [43], but the effect of an intervention may also differ across institutions. Particular skills that are crucial to palliative care, such as communication, are difficult to teach.…”