Implementation of an Educational Session on Family Engagement for Family Members

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to further improve the family component of the Society of Critical Care Medicine ICU Liberation ABCDEF bundle, by educating family members on techniques to better engage with their loved ones in the intensive care unit at the College of Nursing Telehealth Learning Center.Background: Delirium leads to higher mortality, increased lengths of stay, and long-term cognitive impairment. By involving families, there is a higher prevalence of interventions to reduce and treat patient delirium. The Society of Critical Care Medicine developed a bundle to mitigate these effects, which includes family engagement. This project aimed to improve the family engagement component through an online educational module. Methods: A thorough literature search was conducted utilizing PubMed and Scopus. Family members were recruited by the Telehealth Learning Center. Inclusion criteria included: being an adult over the age of 18 years old, voluntarily consenting to participate, having English as primary language, and the current presence of a loved one in the medical intensive care unit. A 20-minute educational session about family engagement techniques was completed through Zoom on one day. Pre- and post-test surveys were sent to participants before and after the intervention. There were four questions using the Likert scale and one demographic question. Results: There were 13 participants that attended the session, but only seven participants (58%) completed the post-test survey, which limited data analysis. The item regarding ICU rounds was found to be significant (p