Design: A team of five nurse graduates from an innovative ICU-based research program developed a prospective, observational pilot study.

Population: This research team chose to evaluate a convenience sample of twenty patients admitted to the Lehigh Valley Hospital medical intensive care unit.

Concept: Bedside nurses noticed that communication by physicians to critical care patient family members is a factor associated with family satisfaction. They also noted that due to the dynamic critical care environment, this communication may not occur on a daily basis. They anticipated that if physicians provide daily communication to the patient’s family, then the family’s rating of satisfaction on the Critical Care Family Satisfaction Survey (CCFSS) will improve.

Methods: Five graduates of the Critical Care “Passport to Research” bedside scientist program chose the ‘Physician/family communication’ research idea from their observations in practice and from a thorough evaluation of the available literature for this topic. They discovered that while physician communication with patients and their families was an important topic, research focused on improving daily physician – family communication in the critical care setting was lacking.

Results: Using the skills they had learned from their course and collaborating with several seasoned clinical researchers, this group developed a simple and effective pilot project to evaluate their research question.

Conclusions/Implications: Critical care nurses can learn the necessary skills needed to develop a well-designed research project that effectively evaluates outcomes from problems identified in their practice.

Back to Passport to Research: A Critical-Care Nurse's Adventure
Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004