Critical care family needs in an urban teaching medical center

This is a descriptive study of the relative importance of needs as reported by 213 family members of 114 patients hospitalized in critical care units of a large, urban, teaching, medical center. In this study we used Molter's Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (revised), an instrument that has been used in other similar investigations, but never before in such a large sample or one with similar demographics. In general, the findings were consistent with those in previous studies using the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory. One striking difference was the relatively low ranking accorded by this sample to the need "to feel there was hope." Parents, spouses, siblings, adult children, and "significant others" ranked their needs in strikingly similar ways. Family members of critically ill patients need two things most: to have honest, intelligible, and timely information and to feel assured that their loved one is being cared for by competent and caring people. Clinical, educational, and research implications are identified and briefly discussed.