Family-centred care of patients admitted to the intensive care unit in times of COVID-19: A systematic review.
Elena Fernández-Martínez, Estefanía Afang Mapango, María Cristina Martínez-Fernández and 1 others
PMID 35221143WHAT IT FOUND
Reported ICU practices included telephone and video calls, structured daily updates, family liaison roles and end-of-life visits.
Families often valued virtual contact, but connection problems and unclear information remained barriers.
Key findings
01The included ICU reports described telephone and video calls as the main ways to keep families informed and connected during visit restrictions.
02In one included study, 86% of relatives rated virtual visits positively, but technical problems, inability to communicate with the patient and unclear or infrequent updates were reported as barriers.
03Recommended responses included allowing at least one family member to be present at end of life, with prior protective-equipment training and psychological preparation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review covered a newly emerging problem and included only 24 documents, so the evidence base was small. Family-centred care was not defined uniformly, and the included resources ranged from recommendations and pilots to qualitative and descriptive studies, so the review reports themes rather than tested effects. It included only English, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian publications and found mainly Western studies, so practice in other settings may differ. The review used thematic analysis rather than pooled outcome data, so it cannot show which intervention produced any benefit. Two included documents scored below 70% on quality assessment.
Declared interests
The authors declare no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that video calls, family liaison teams or end-of-life visits improve patient or family outcomes. The review mainly synthesises recommendations, descriptive reports, pilots and qualitative studies, so it describes practices tried rather than tested effects.