Measures to evaluate clinician communication in the intensive care unit: A systematic review of measurement properties.
Claire R Morton, Lauren Raymond-King, Alexandria Brackett and 2 others
PMID 40712401WHAT IT FOUND
No patient- or family-reported ICU communication survey was recommended for clinical use.
Family satisfaction scores do not necessarily mean communication was good; the Quick FICS is most promising but still needs ICU validation.
Key findings
01Three family-reported ICU communication measures were evaluated, and none met criteria for recommendation for use in research or clinical care.
02The FS-ICU and CCFSS were developed mainly to assess satisfaction with communication, not communication quality.
03The Quick FICS was the most robust measure found, but it was still not recommended because ICU-specific validation is incomplete.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only English-language studies conducted in the United States were included, so findings may not apply to other health systems or languages. No patient-reported measures were identified; only proxy-reported measures were reviewed. COSMIN ratings include reviewer judgment, especially for content validity. The Quick FICS was developed for hospitalized patients over 65 years old, so its relevance to ICU patients across ages is untested. Quick FICS is administered by research staff rather than self-administered, which may introduce social-desirability bias. Responsiveness was not established for the reviewed measures, so they cannot yet show whether communication improved after an intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read a high family satisfaction score as proof that communication quality was good. The FS-ICU and CCFSS mainly measure satisfaction, and none of the reviewed patient- or family-reported measures was recommended for ICU use.