Nurture-Empower-Support: A Human-Centered Approach to Understand and Support ICU Families

Abstract

Family members have been shown to be integral to the well-being and recovery of patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Watching a loved one fight a critical illness, however, can be a terrifying and life-altering experience. We present the results of a need-finding process aimed to investigate how interventions in the ICU can be designed to facilitate family member support in the ICU. We first delve into an in-depth 3-month ethnographic study to understand the complex ICU environment and to observe family-care team interactions. We then capture family experiences using journals and semi-structured interviews with a total of 23 family members. Based on these investigations, we propose NES (Nurture-Empower-Support), a three-stage framework to aid the creation of a holistic system that supports the dynamic needs of families in the ICU.