Background: The needs of intensive care patient’s family members are often neglected. Many healthcare practitioners do not realize that meeting the family needs in the intensive care settings actually may improve outcome for their patients and enable the family members to cope and deal with the patient’s hospitalization period effectively. With this in mind, the present study aimed to address the needs of Malaysian family members of intensive care unit patients. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among family members of Intensive Care Unit of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. A total of 60 family members were recruited using a convenience sampling manner. A Malay validated Critical Care Family Needs Inventory was used to identify the family needs among the respondents. Descriptive statistics as well as mean comparison analyses were employed to achieve the study. Results: The findings showed that family members ranked Assurance items as the most important needs. In terms of subscales scores, Assurance and Information evidenced higher mean scores compared to other dimensions. All the family need dimensions had positive and significant associations with one another. The highest correlation was noted among Comfort – Support pair, r(58) = 0.73, p < 0.001. No significant differences in the mean values found across gender, history of admission and types of relationships. In contrast, significant mean difference was observed across level of education. Conclusion: Identifying the needs of family members in the intensive care unit is imperative as it raises awareness and contributes knowledge in terms of family needs to healthcare providers, policy makers, medical social workers and general public.
Critical Care