Navigating Uncertainty: Family Experiences and Coping Strategies During Critical Care Hospitalisation: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.

The study was done at one tertiary hospital in Sydney, so the findings may not fit other critical care settings. Participants were English-speaking family members who visited the patient soon after admission, so families who could not visit, did not speak English, or were not available are not represented. Interviews stopped before all eligible follow-up participants were interviewed, so some experiences may be missing. No transcripts or findings were returned to participants, so their own words were not checked for interpretation. The study did not measure anxiety, depression or PTSD, so it cannot say how coping strategies affected psychological symptoms. The researchers had prior relationships with participants through the larger study, which may have influenced interviews.

Do not read these coping themes as evidence that communication strategies reduce family anxiety. The study asked families about their experiences and did not test an intervention or measure psychological outcomes.