• BurnsKaren E AKEA0000-0002-9967-5424Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Karen.Burns@unityhealth.to.Unity Health Toronto - St. Michael's Hospital, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Toronto, ON, M5B 1W8, C, Ellen McDonald, Sylvie Debigaré, Nasim Zamir, Moises Vasquez, Mikael Piche-Ayotte, Simon Oczkowski, and Canadian Critical Care Trials Group.
• Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Karen.Burns@unityhealth.to.
• Can J Anaesth. 2022 Dec 1; 69 (12): 152715361527-1536.

PurposeWhile patient and family engagement may improve clinical care and research, current practices for engagement in Canadian intensive care units (ICUs) are unknown.MethodsWe developed and administered a cross-sectional questionnaire to ICU leaders of current engagement practices, facilitators, and barriers to engagement, and whether engagement was a priority, using to an ordinal Likert scale from 1 to 10.ResultsThe response rate was 53.4% (124/232). Respondents were from 11 provinces and territories, mainly from medical surgical ICUs (76%) and community hospitals (70%). Engagement in patient care included bedside care (84%) and bedside rounds (66%), presence during procedures/crises (65%), and survey completion (77%). Research engagement included ethics committees (36%), protocol review (31%), and knowledge translation (30%). Facilitators of engagement in patient care included family meetings (87%), open visitation policies (81%), and engagement as an institutional priority (74%). Support from departmental (43%) and hospital (33%) leadership was facilitator of research engagement. Time was the main barrier to engagement in any capacity. Engagement was a higher priority in patient care vs research (median [interquartile range], 8 [7-9] vs 3 [1-7]; P < 0.001) and in pediatric vs adult ICUs (10 [9-10] vs 8 [7-9]; P = 0.003). Research engagement was significantly higher in academic vs other ICUs (7 [5-8] vs 2 [1-4]; P < 0.001), and pediatric vs adult ICUs (7 [5-8] vs 3 [1-6]; P = 0.01).ConclusionsOrganizational strategies and institutional support were key facilitators of engagement. Engagement in patient care was a higher priority than engagement in research.© 2022. Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.

14 keywords...

hide…