Humanizing care in the ICU: Implementation insights from the Footprints Project

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient-Centered Care
• Qualitative Research Methods

Background:

• The Footprints Project is a humanizing initiative.
• It elicits and displays personal patient information to support person-centered care.
• The project aims to enhance patient identity, preferences, and daily plans visibility at the bedside.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the evolution of the Footprints Project over time.
• To identify contextual determinants and practical strategies for its sustainability.
• To gather perspectives from patients, families, and clinicians.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative descriptive study co-designed with patients and families.
• Conducted in a university-affiliated medical-surgical Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
• Data collected through focus groups and interviews with 7 patients, 19 family members, and 40 clinicians; analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Main Results:

• Identified four key transitions in the Footprints Project's evolution.
• Transitioned from a nurse-led tool to an interprofessional intervention.
• Evolved from patient-centered to patient and family-partnered, embedded into workflows, with format/content updates.

Conclusions:

• Patients, families, and clinicians identified strategies for the project's evolution and sustainability.
• Interprofessional and family-partnered efforts, workflow alignment, and refreshed tools are crucial.
• Embedding the project strengthens person-centered care and may help operationalize other humanizing practices in ICUs.