Prospective Evaluation of Family Care Rituals in the ICU (FCR)

Over the previous century, the location of where people die has shifted from home to either hospitals or nursing homes, with 20% of patients dying in the ICU. Several deficiencies for End-of-Life (EOL) care provided in the ICU have been identified in literature; most of them are related to communication, decision making, sense of control, spirituality, preparation for death, pain and symptom management. Symptoms of stress, anxiety or depression as well as discordance between the perceptions of care by the health care providers (physicians and nurses) and the family members may all be related to these shortcomings. These symptoms are likely from multiple factors in the ICU that strip the family of the ability to provide any direct care or nurturing for their loved one, as families did when people died at home. Moreover, qualitative studies suggest that families want and value a role as a care provider for their loved ones in the ICU. In a pilot study, the investigators identified several domains in which family participation may be of benefit, focusing on the 5 physical senses, personal care of the patient, and spirituality of the patient and family. These areas were incorporated as Family Care Rituals (FCR) in which family members can participate while their loved one is in the ICU

The investigators are conducting a multi-center, multinational prospective evaluation of FCR with the hypothesis that FCR will primarily reduce symptoms of PTSD, as well as anxiety and depression in the surviving family members at 90 days after death or discharge from the ICU. Additionally, the intervention's effect on concordance of care as measured on day of enrollment and ICU day 5 via a questionnaire administered to the family members, the day-time nurse and the attending physician will be evaluated. ICU utilization, family satisfaction, and validation of the END of live scorING System (ENDING-S) are also being evaluated. To understand what care rituals are being performed at the bedside as well as the impact on bedside nursing care, nursing is also completing daily surveys.

The investigators are planning a study of independent cases and controls with 1 control(s) per case. Prior data indicate that the incidence of PTSD in family members is 33%. To reduce the rate of PTSD for family members in the interventional arm to 17%, 114 experimental subjects and 114 control subjects will need to be enrolled to be able to reject the null hypothesis that the failure rates for experimental and control subjects are equal with probability (power) 0.8. The Type I error probability associated with this test of this null hypothesis is 0.05. An uncorrected chi-squared statistic will be used to evaluate this null hypothesis.