Family and health professional experience with a nurse-led family support intervention in ICU: A qualitative evaluation study.

Objectives: To investigate family and health professional experience with a nurse-led family support intervention in intensive care.

Design: Qualitative evaluation study.

Setting: A twelve-bed surgical intensive care unit in a 900-bed University Hospital in Switzerland.

Main Outcome Measures: Data were collected through 16 semi-structured interviews with families (n = 19 family members) and three focus group interviews with critical care staff (n = 19) and analysed using content analysis strategies.

Findings: Four themes related to the new family support intervention were identified. First, families and staff described it as a valuable and essential part of ICU care. Second, it facilitated staff-family interaction and communication. Third, from staff perspective, it promoted the quality of family care. Fourth, staff believed that the family support intervention enabled them to better care for families through increased capacity for developing and sustaining relationships with families.

Conclusions: An advanced practice family nursing role coupled with a family support pathway is an acceptable, appreciated and beneficial model of care delivery in the inttensive care unit from the perspective of families and critical care staff. Further research is needed to investigate the intervention's effectiveness in the intensive care unit.