About the Survey
The original FS-ICU was generated from conceptual frameworks of patient satisfaction, quality end-of-life care, research on needs of critically ill families,literature on family satisfaction with medical decision making, existing validated satisfaction surveys, and a pilot study (Heyland 2001). Originally, the questionnaire consisted of 34 items but in 2007, it was refined and reduced to a 24 item version, the FS-ICU 24 (Wall 2007). The questionnaire has been translated and/or culturally adapted to over 20 languages, and has been used for research in countries from almost every continent, appearing in over 70 published studies. Now, 20 years later, the FSICU has now been updated to reflect the evolving role of ‘families’ in the context of critical illness, which include their participation in daily rounds and in the care of their critically ill family member.
Introducing the New FS-ICU 24R
Developed in the summer of 2018 with the help of many ICU experts, the FS-ICU 24R is the newest version of the questionnaire and improves in many different aspects. Two items have been added to reflect the evolving role of family participation:
- How satisfied are you with your participation in daily rounds?
- Participation in rounds is suggested as a means of improving overall satisfaction with communication and increasing family engagement
- How satisfied are you with your participation in the care of your critically ill family member?
- Family members place high value on their presence with their loved one and show increased satisfaction and better psychological health when they are allowed to be involved with care.
Response options include corresponding “faces” to visually represent different levels of satisfaction. These faces are accompanied by a color scale to further reflect satisfaction, but are also well represented in black and white.
The questionnaire is reorganized to make it easier to follow along for participants and ICU professionals, and many items were rephrased to communicate more effectively to family members.
We welcome ICU professionals and family members of critically ill patients to use the new and improved FS-ICU questionnaire.
A letter from Dr. Daren Heyland introducing the revision and all the changes made from the previous FS-ICU 24 can be found here.
A marked up version of the questionnaire that visually indicates all these changes can be found here.
View the FS-ICU 24R