Family Resilience in the ICU: A Concept Analysis.
Shunxia Sun, Caiping Song, Li Guan and 2 others
PMID 40820653WHAT IT FOUND
Families of ICU patients may regain control through four linked systems: family characteristics, beliefs, organisation and support.
Existing resilience scales do not fully capture these ICU-specific attributes.
Key findings
01Family resilience in the ICU is organised around regaining control, with four main attributes: characteristics system, belief system, organisation system and support system.
02Current assessment tools measure some features but cannot fully reflect all defining attributes of ICU family resilience.
03Antecedents include relatives admitted to the ICU, disruption of family order, acute stress and positive adaptation; consequences include resilience development, the social psychology of family, family adaptation and patient support.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a concept analysis, not a study that tests whether assessing or supporting family resilience improves patient or family outcomes. No studies were excluded for methodological quality, and the included literature used general family resilience concepts and tools rather than ICU-specific ones. The authors state that the unique defining attributes of ICU family resilience have not been fully analysed and that it is uncertain whether the proposed definition can be used in the ICU setting. Current measurement tools do not fully capture all defining attributes, and the authors report no validated ICU-specific measurement tool.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Funding was from the Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing and the Chongqing Science and Technology Commission.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that assessing family resilience improves ICU patient or family outcomes. It is a concept analysis of existing literature, and it says current tools do not fully measure ICU family resilience.