The impact of family care visitation programme on patients and caregivers in the intensive care unit: A mixed methods study.

Aims: To track changes in the haemodynamic and respiratory indicators of patients and evaluate families' caring experiences via the visitation programme in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Background: Although most people recognise the importance of family care visitation programme in the ICU, objective research results on the effect on patients and caregivers are still insufficient.

Design: Mixed methods.

Methods: In this a quasi-experimental investigation and qualitative study, after executing the programme with families of ICU patients in a general hospital in South Korea from June to July 2019, changes in haemodynamic and respiratory indicators for control (n = 28) and experimental groups (n = 28) were analysed; the experimental group families' experiences were analysed through in-depth interviews; the qualitative study's reporting rigour was checked against the COREQ guidelines and TREND checklist for a quasi-experimental study. Qualitative and quantitative data were examined using content analysis and repeated-measures analysis of variance, respectively.

Results: There was a significant change in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the haemodynamic indicator, and the respiratory indicator in both groups increased slightly over time and then gradually stabilised; there were no significant differences or interactions between groups regarding time of systolic blood pressure. The respiratory rate significantly decreased only in the experimental group. There was a significant increase in oxygen saturation over time, as well as interactions between time and group and between groups. Four themes were extracted from families' experiences.

Conclusion: The haemodynamic and respiratory indicators of the group using patient- and family-centred care (PFCC) showed a stable effect on critically ill patients, which increased families' satisfaction. In future, interventions should encourage family participation in the ICU for successful PFCC.

Relevance To Clinical Practice: The findings provided evidence for the importance of PFCC through changes in objective haemodynamic and respiratory indicators.