Determination of patients' family members' needs and related factors in the intensive care unit with visiting restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Banu Terzi, Şehrinaz Polat, Hamdiye Banu Katran and 2 others
PMID 35871962WHAT IT FOUND
Families locked out of ICUs by visiting bans wanted most of all to be told the truth and reassured their relative was being well cared for.
Women reported lower needs than men, and families with no one to help them at the hospital wanted more support.
Key findings
01The needs families rated as most important were realistic answers to questions, phone updates when they could not visit, and assurance that their relative was receiving the best care and that staff cared about them.
02Across all five need domains, women scored significantly lower than men, with the gap largest for the desire to be near their relative.
03Families who had no other relative able to support them reported significantly higher needs for proximity, support and comfort, and the longer they stayed at the hospital the more support and comfort they wanted.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study measured what families said they wanted, not whether giving them those things improved anything for patient or family. Relatives were reached by phone and answered an online form, so those without a mobile or with difficulty reading on a screen were less likely to be in it; the authors report that many participants were not Turkish and needed other family members to help them answer, which they say limits generalisability to the Turkish population. The regression models explained very little of the variation in need scores, between 4.5% and 9.2%, so the factors identified are weak predictors. The comfort domain of the inventory covers only the physical environment, such as food, furniture and a bathroom, so it misses the psychological and spiritual sides of comfort. Most participants were first-degree relatives who stayed at their own homes rather than at the hospital, so the findings may not fit relatives who are travelling or far from home. The data were collected early in the pandemic, when uncertainty about the disease itself was greatest, which may have shaped the needs reported.
Declared interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the sex difference as evidence that women's families suffer less during a visiting ban. The study measured how important families said each need was, not how much distress they were in or how well those needs were met, and the authors' own explanation, that men were more often the relatives standing at the forefront during the pandemic, is speculation rather than a finding.