Commonly asked questions by critically ill patients relatives in Arabic countries

Background: Relatives often lack important information about intensive care unit patients. Research on ways to improve family satisfaction in the ICU has become a crucial point in ICU quality improvement research. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and analyze a list of commonly asked questions from relatives of patients in the intensive care unit in Arabic countries. This list might help families to determine which questions they want to ask and help them in decision-making process in emergency situations of their critically ill relatives. Methods: This study was a prospective double center study. It took place in the ICUs of two hospitals in Arabic countries: Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Alexandria University Main Hospital in Egypt and the ICU of King Fahad specialist Hospital in Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Data collection was done by reporting of Questions asked by the relatives of ICU patients during daily interview. The list of questions generated was checked to identify questions that could be eliminated. The remaining questions were categorized into 9 different groups: diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, comfort, patient interaction, family, mortality, post-ICU management and other questions. WE ranked the questions in the preliminary list through ICU staff, patients families and the patient themselves. Results: 115 Health care professional (34 physicians and 81 nurses) participated in the data collection, the questions recorded were 2240 questions. It was found that about 1750 questions (78.12%) were duplicated or not clear. The remaining 490 questions were classified into different categories. The same 115 Health care professional (34 physicians and 81 nurses) who shared in the collection of data also shared in the ranking of the questions. 128 first degree relatives shared in the evaluation of the relevance of questions as well as 62 patients after they have been cured and before their discharge from ICU.A list was created including the most important 12 questions which got a score of 3 or more from all the 3 categories who did the assessment (the patients, their relatives and health care professional). Conclusion: This study could provide a real help and guide to the physicians in the ICU and the patients families in the preparation for the families – physicians meetings, save the time lost in poor communication, decrease conflict, increase family satisfaction and help in decision-making process.