• Freda DeKeyser Ganz, Gilat Yihye, and Nicole Beckman.
• Freda DeKeyser Ganz is a department chair at Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing, Jerusalem, Israel. Gilat Yihye is a head nurse at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem. Nicole Beckman is a nursing instructor at Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing. Freda@hadassah.org.il.
• Am. J. Crit. Care. 2019 Jul 1; 28 (4): 274-280.

BackgroundIntensive care unit stays can be stressful for patients' family members. Family-centered communication has 6 components: fostering relationships, exchanging information, responding to emotions, managing uncertainty, making decisions, and enabling patient self-management. Whether these communication components decrease family members' stress is unknown.ObjectiveTo describe levels of family-centered communication and associations with acute stress while patients are in the intensive care unit.MethodsA convenience sample of 130 family members of patients in 2 intensive care units in a Jerusalem, Israel, tertiary medical center received a family-centered communication questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, and a personal characteristics questionnaire.ResultsMost respondents were women (n = 79, 60.8%), children of the patient (n = 67, 51.9%), and familiar with the patient's diagnosis (n = 111, 85.4%). Mean (SD) participant age was 45.7 (13.6) years. Most considered the patient medically stable (n = 75, 57.7%). Mean (SD) intensive care unit stay was 7.45 (5.8) days. Mean (SD) total and item scores for family-centered communication were 98.75 (18.21) and 3.80 (0.70), respectively; for the Perceived Stress Scale, 19.63 (5.92) and 1.96 (0.59), respectively. Relationship building (r = -0.31, P = .002), participation in care management (r = -0.32, P = .001), and emotional support (r = -0.29, P = .003), and were significantly related to stress.ConclusionsStress levels were mild to moderate and communication scores were moderate to high. Better nurse communication with family members was associated with decreased acute stress, irrespective of personal characteristics or perceptions of the patient's medical status.© 2019 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

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