Intensive Care Syndrom-Family: A Narative Review

During hospitalization patients in the ICU, many family members are at risk for a mixture of negative psychological reactions. This study aimed to review the symptoms and challenges of these families and to give caring strategies for ICU family members.

This review study was done through a library literature review in the scientific data bases including Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, SID, Magiran, and Iran Medex. All articles in English and Persianpublished between 2002 and 2019 were studied. After screeing the articles according to the inclusion criteria, 27 articles were analyzed.

The family members of critically ill patients admitted to the ICU often experience a cluster of adverse psychological reactions in response to conditions that is out of their control. These experiences have been recognized as “intensive care syndrome-family”. Family-centered care and effective communication were mentioned as the most important and effective strategies to reduce the complications of this syndrome.

As a key member of the health care team in the ICU, nurses  not only are responsible for the patients, but are responsible for the family members. They should help families to cope with the crisis of ICU admission and help prevent or control the family intensive care syndrome in them through family-centered care measures.