• Michael E Wilson, Sumanjit Kaur, Alice Gallo De Moraes, Brian W Pickering, Ognjen Gajic, and Vitaly Herasevich.
• Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905. Electronic address: wilson.michael1@mayo.edu.
• J Crit Care. 2015 Dec 1; 30 (6): 1317-23.

PurposeClinicians often lack key information regarding intensive care unit (ICU) families. Our objective was to identify (1) important information for clinicians to know about ICU families when making decisions and (2) important information for families to know about patients from clinicians.Materials And MethodsWe identified important information items through a literature review and semistructured interviews. A separate cohort of family members, nurses, and physicians from 2 ICUs in a single institution were asked to prioritize the identified information as necessary for decision making.ResultsWe identified 21 items important for clinicians to know about families and 32 items important for families to know about patients from clinicians. Themes important for clinicians to know about family members included family background, questions, understanding, goals, concerns, well-being, and requests for additional help. Themes important for families to know about the patient included diagnosis, treatments, prognosis, clinical status, schedule, comfort, goals of care, medical team, and family participation.ConclusionsThrough qualitative and quantitative analysis, we identified important information for ICU clinicians to know about family members and for family members to know about patients. The identified information can be used to guide strategies and tools to improve assessment of and communication with families.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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