Patient Safety in ICU. The Role of Family Member's Participation in Nursing Care in Patient Safety? A Randomized Controlled Clinical Audit

Although there is a defined role for family members in the development of the hospital safety policies, family participation in the health care is a challenging concept and few studies have focused on its role in patient safety. This study designed to determine the effect of the participation of family member's in nursing care on patient safety in the intensive care unit (ICU). The study used a randomized controlled audit. Seventy one ICU nurses, patients and their relatives were selected purposefully, from October to December 2021, in Rafsanjan, Iran. Eligible nurses assigned into 2 study groups (with and without family members' participating in nursing care), by the random minimization method. The ICU nurses' compliance with patient safety standards in nursing care was measured by a checklist. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22, by Shapiro and Wilk tests, Chi-Square and t-test for independent groups. A significance level of 0.05 was considered. The study groups were similar in terms of demographic characteristics and baseline scores. The mean ±SD of nurses' observance of patient's safety score in with family participation group (119.20±13.64) was higher than in without family participation group(116.97±13.26), but no statistical difference was observed between the study groups (p=0.488) Also, in the subgroups, no significant statistical difference was observed between the two groups after the intervention (p>0.05).  ICU nurses observance of standards in patient safety during caring is not affected by the participation of family members in the nursing cares. These results guide managers and policymakers of the health system to find stronger influencing factors on the level of patient safety compliance during nursing care.