Measuring Family Engagement in Care (The FAME Study)

Measuring Family Engagement in Care (The FAME Study)

There are currently no validated tools to specifically measure family engagement in the intensive care unit (ICU). To address this gap, an interdisciplinary team developed a novel instrument to measure family engagement in the ICU. This will be a prospective observational cohort with an embedded qualitative study to validate the FAMily Engagement (FAME) instrument in the ICU setting. This study will also evaluate the association between family activation, engagement, and family-centred outcomes, and exploring factors (age, relationship, sex, gender, race/ethnicity) that may influence family engagement in the ICU.

This will be a prospective observational cohort study of 198 family members in the ICUs of 4 Canadian hospitals in 3 provinces (Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec) over a 12-week period. These sites were chosen due to their urban setting and distant geographic range to capture differing practice patterns, a higher percentage of racialized patients, and language and cultural differences. The target recruitment is 50 family members from each participating site. A "family member" will be considered anyone with a biological, legal, or emotional relationship with the patient and whom the patient would want involved in their care.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Family member of patient admitted to the intensive care units
• Able to participate in English or French
• Age 18 years old or older

Exclusion Criteria:

• ICU stays less than 24 hours
• Another family member has already participated in the study