The Effect of Information Booklets on Family Members’ Satisfaction with Decision - Making in an Intensive Care Unit

Background: The intensive care unit is usually a very emotionally charged environment and can create a great deal of tension and stress for families. Family members who frequently ask nurses for information can place an additional burden on the nursing staff. Thus, having information about the patients’ condition, management of care and the ICU setting is vital to ensure family members’ satisfaction. Objectives: To test the effect of information booklets on family members' satisfaction with decision-making around the care of critically ill patients in an intensive care unit. Methods: Quasi-experiment with non-randomized study groups, using a pre and post-test design. The study was conducted in an adult intensive care unit, where 84 family members of critically-ill patients were conveniently assigned to an intervention group and a control group. Recruitment of sample: admission of patients to ICU on even days; control group, odd days; intervention group. On admission day after consented, completed pre test questionnaires. Intervention group received information booklet and will be explain between 20-30 minutes; control group, received routine information if any. Day-2: reinforcement on information about 10-20 minutes for intervention group only. Day3: completion of post-test questionnaire by both groups. The Family Satisfaction – Intensive Care Unit (FS-ICU) & Quality of Communication (QOC) instrument was used to measure families’ satisfaction level. Result: There are significant differences in Family Satisfaction between the intervention and control groups. There was an increase in satisfaction across the pre-and post-test mean values, 54.05 (SD=10. 23) and 71.1 (SD= 19.10), respectively; a significant increase in family satisfaction for the intervention group who received the information booklets. Conclusion: The study findings confirm that the information booklets results in a substantial increase in family satisfaction regarding decision-making for patients’ care. Thus, it’s relevant as an important method to measure one aspect of ICU care as well as the quality of the care provided