Journal Article

Benefit of using a “bundled” consent for intensive care unit procedures as part of an early family meeting

Allain, Rae, Bigatello, Luca, Dhillon, Anahat, Tardini, Francesca, Bittner, Edward, Schmidt, Ulrich

2014

Overview

Relatives of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are often dissatisfied with family-physician communication. Our prospective preintervention and postintervention study tested the hypothesis that introducing this informed consent process would improve family satisfaction with the ICU process of care. We developed a consent form that included an introductory explanation of the main ICU interventions and a description of 8 common procedures in a surgical ICU. We administered it early in the ICU course during a scheduled family meeting. The study was a prospective preintervention and postintervention design. The “Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit” (FS-ICU) score was higher in the intervention than in the control group (95.4 ± 4 vs 78.2 ± 22, P < .001). The nursing perception of satisfaction with care was also higher in the intervention group (95.8 ± 13 vs 71.9 ± 28, P < .001). A bundled informed consent resulted in higher family satisfaction with the process of care in ICU.

• Publisher: Elsevier Inc,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Bone surgery / Committees / Communication / Critical Care / Critical Care - psychology / Critical Care - statistics & numerical data / Critical Care Nursing - statistics & numerical data / Decision making / Demographics / Family / Female / Hospitals / Humans / Informed Consent / Intensive care / Intensive Care Units / Intervention / Male / Meetings / Middle Aged / Nursing / Patient satisfaction / Patient-centered care / Patients / Polls & surveys / Professional-Family Relations / Prospective Studies / Pulmonary arteries / Quality improvement / Studies / Thoracic surgery / Ventilation