Perceived informational needs of families of patients hospitalized in intensive care units from the perspective of family members and intensive care nurses

Introduction: Often, medical conditions that require intensive cares occur suddenly and complex environment of intensive care units emerge many informational needs for family. The purpose of this study was to compare informational needs of families of patient hospitalized in intensive care units from the perspective of family members and intensive care nurses. Methods: in this descriptive-analytical study, 71 nurses of intensive care units (ICU, CCU, NICU) and 113 family members of patients hospitalized in the critical care unit were selected with convince sampling methods. Participants were surveyed using informational needs subscale of critical care family needs inventory (CCFNI). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and one way ANOVA. Findings: family members rated all of informational needs in intensive care units (ICU, CCU, NICU) as very important (mean>3); whereas, among nurses 77 of needs were rated as very important degree. Overall, importance degrees of needs among nurses were lower than this importance among family members and the difference was statistically significant (P