None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This study was approved as a quality improvement project by the Quality Improvement Head of Department at the North Metropolitan Area Health Service (GEKO #32792). This committee provided ethical approval for the investigators to consent and enrol participants into this interventional study. Summary of research project: Families presenting to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) will be randomly allocated to either the control or intervention group. The intervention group will receive the Choosing Wisely five questions as pre-reading. The control group will not participate in any pre-reading. The family will then undergo a family meeting with the ICU doctor and nurse as planned. Post-family meeting the family member/s, doctor and nurse will complete a survey. The goal of this study is to investigate whether the pre-reading improves families' perceived involvement in decision making on behalf of their family member who is a patient in the ICU.
Interventions
Intervention arm: families received the Choosing Wisely five questions as printed prompts prior to a family meeting with clinicians.
Physical/informational materials: printed copy of the Choosing Wisely five questions and an explanation of how to use them as pre-reading. It was anticipated that it would take roughly 5-10 minutes to give the prompt and explain it to family member/s. Family member/s would then have an estimated 15-30 minutes to read over the paperwork prior to the family meeting
Intervention arm: families received the Choosing Wisely five questions as printed prompts prior to a family meeting with clinicians. Physical/informational materials: printed copy of the Choosing Wisely five questions and an explanation of how to use them as pre-reading. It was anticipated that it would take roughly 5-10 minutes to give the prompt and explain it to family member/s. Family member/s would then have an estimated 15-30 minutes to read over the paperwork prior to the family meeting. Family member/s could elect to take the printed prompts into the family meeting with the clinician and utilise them as much or as little as they wanted during the meeting. This prompt sheet was designed specifically for this study. Mode of delivery: the printed materials were given to family member/s by an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) staff member, for example, a doctor or nurse. The family had time to read the materials prior to their family meeting. The family member/s were able to discuss the printed prompt with a staff member if they required any clarification. The number of times the intervention will be delivered and over what period of time including the number of sessions: ICU staff members invited families to participate if they met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. This was ad hoc, whenever a family meeting was planned in the unit. The location where the intervention occurs: in the ICU of one of three hospitals (Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Rockingham General Hospital, St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospital) participating in the study, in Perth, Western Australia. Any strategies to monitor adherence to the intervention: staff were not required to check adherence with the pre-reading. Staff encouraged the family member/s to complete the family survey at the conclusion of the family meeting.
Sponsors
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
The inclusion criterion was any family member/s who were to attend and participate in a family meeting with the ICU doctor. The family member who was most likely to act as the patient’s surrogate decision maker was asked to complete the post-family meeting survey. This was typically the patient’s next of kin.
Exclusion criteria
The exclusion criterion was family member or patient age less than 18 years.
Outcome results
None listed