JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

During the Covid-19 pandemic, in person visitation from family members was extremely restricted and sometimes eliminated in effort to reduce the risk of transmission of SARS COV2 to patients and staff. During this time, many intensive care units (ICU) created novel strategies which were deployed rapidly in effort to maintain a patient-centered and family-centered care approach. While pandemic-related restrictions have eased, these systems, including video-conferencing or virtual bedside visits, remain relevant for family members who cannot be physically present due to other reasons (lack of access to transport, socio-economic restraints, geographically distant).

Objective:

The aims of this study were; (a) to report the experience of intensive care nursing staff using a bespoke video-conferencing system, called ICU FamilyLink, specifically designed for patients and staff to communicate with patients’ family remotely during hospitalization in a intensive care department of a tertiary referral hospital that had no prior video-calling system in place (b) to examine the scenarios the video-conferencing system was used in (c) to assess the future use of video-conferencing systems to enhance family communication in intensive care settings.

Methods:

A modified telehealth useability questionnaire (mTUQ) was administered to nursing staff (n= 22) of an intensive care unit in a model 4 tertiary referral hospital in Ireland, one year after implementation of the bespoke video-conferencing system.

Results:

A total of 22 nurses who have been working in the intensive care department in University Hospital Galway, Ireland responded to the survey. All of the respondents had used the ICU FamilyLink system at least once, although this was not a requirement for participation in the study. 22.7% of participants were between 25-34 years, 54.5 % were between the ages of 35-44, and 22.7% were between 45-54 years. 68.2% of participants (n=15) reported that they had never used videoconferencing in the intensive care setting to communicate with family members prior to March 2020. The mTUQ showed overall satisfaction scores for each subcategory of ease of use and learnability, interface quality, interaction quality, reliability, satisfaction and future use, and usefulness.

Conclusions:

The findings of this study provide valuable insight into healthcare professionals experience using a videoconferencing system to facilitate virtual bedside visits for family members. We conclude that videoconferencing systems, when appropriately tailored to the environment with the users in mind, can be an acceptable solution to maintain communication with family members who cannot be physically present at the bedside.