Developing and Testing a Nurse-Led Technology-Enhanced Family Engagement Program (NURSE-TECH-Family) Among Critically Ill Patients in ICU: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Detailed Summary

Family engagement in care for ICU patients is essential to ensure patient-centered clinical outcomes such as reducing ICU length of stay (LOS) by about a day, and hospital LOS from 3.78 days to 2.29 days. It also lowers patient's stress and anxiety, improves orientation, and detection, lowers the prevalence and duration of delirium; enhances patients' and families' satisfaction and experience with care and helps with patients' recovery. This practice has not been universally implemented due to issues with lack of transportation for family members to the hospital, time conflict with work, and clinicians' fear of engaging family. Family-centered care in the ICU remains an inconsistent practice and an understudied area of nursing science. Family-centered care in the ICU remains an inconsistent practice and an understudied area of nursing science. The purpose of this proposed study is to determine the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to implement and test the impact of a Nurse-Led-Technology-EnhanCed Family Engagement Program (Nurse-TECH-Family) on the primary outcome of ICU LOS, and secondary outcome of reducing stress and improving quality of life and well-being among critically ill patients' families. We propose a pilot two-group RCT to examine the feasibility and preliminary effects of NURSE-TECH-Family program on 30 family members in the ICU. This study will be conducted at the Cooper University Health Care Medical Intensive Care Unit. Prior to conducting the RCT, we will involve a focus group of eight healthcare providers to understand healthcare providers' perceptions of the intervention and the project. The specific aims of this RCT are to (1) Assess the feasibility and acceptability of NURSE-TECH-Family program and obtain data on family stress, mental and physical health symptoms, and quality of life of family members. (2) Provide preliminary data for estimation of the effects of NURSE-TECH-Family program on family stress, mental and physical health symptoms, and quality of life post-program compared to a control group who will receive the current standard care. (3) Explore the effects of NURSE-TECH-Family on LOS and satisfaction based on Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores at post-program compared to a control group who will receive the current standard care.

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