Nurture-Empower-Support

Understanding ICU Families

Family members have been shown to be integral to the well-being and recovery of patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Watching a loved one fight a critical illness, however, can be a terrifying and life-altering experience. Through 3 months (80 hours) of ethnography, we studied the complex environment and observe family-care team interactions. We then captured family experiences using journals and semi-structured interviews. Based on these investigations, we propose a framework called NES (Nurture-Empower-Support) to aid the creation of a holistic system that supports the dynamic needs of families in the ICU.