Increasing family engagement in critical care: The NGAGE Randomized Controlled Trial

Family members are essential and active partners in critical care delivery. Family enable a channel between the patient and healthcare team, provide emotional and physical support, participate in decision-making, and provide care directly to their loved ones. Evidence shows that family engagement in the intensive care unit (ICU) improves family satisfaction and psychological outcomes, and is therefore a practice recommended by professional medical societies.

Yet, one major practical roadblock to broader engagement in ICU patient care is lack of awareness of the family about their potential role and opportunities to help. Communication between family members and the healthcare team is another unaddressed major issue recognized by both parties. Our team developed NGAGE, a one-stop web-based tool to directly address these issues.

This multicenter randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of the NGAGE tool to improve family engagement in care and other important family-centered outcomes. We will work in partnership with leading organizations that promote and advocate for increased family engagement in critical care. If the NGAGE tool is effective, it will be made available for use by other healthcare organizations.

Objectives

- The primary aim of this study is to evaluate if the NGAGE tool improves care engagement in family members of people admitted to the ICU.

- Secondary objectives are to evaluate the impact of the NGAGE tool on family communication, satisfaction, psychological health, and quality of life