Supporting Families in the ICU

Summary

The overarching goal of our work is to test the effect of high-quality spiritual care for ICU family surrogates on outcomes of psychological and spiritual well-being and medical decision making. Our team has developed an approach to high quality spiritual care intervention for ICU surrogates, called the Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention (SCAI) framework, which is delivered by a chaplain interventionist to ICU surrogates.

Conditions

• Anxiety
• Well-Being
• Satisfaction

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention (SCAI) Framework

The SCAI intervention includes three visits generally scheduled 48-72 hours apart. After three visits, the chaplain will contact the surrogate at least weekly for the remainder of the hospitalization. If the patient dies, the chaplain will conduct a bereavement visit. The SCAI framework addresses four dimensions of spirituality. If all four dimensions are not addressed, they may be assessed during follow-up visits. If all four dimensions are addressed during the initial visit, other visits include at least one question from any dimension. The SCAI framework includes a list of common spiritual care interventions developed based on clinical experience and literature review.. Based on our conceptual framework, interventions are either are emotionally supportive, address spiritual or religious dimensions of care, or address information support such as exploring the meaning of medical events. Consistent with chaplain standards, the chaplain selects and tailors these interventions.

BEHAVIORAL

ICU Guide

The ICU Guide intervention will include three visits with the site RA that are similar in duration to the chaplain visits (based on the single center study, first visit median of 23 minutes, follow-up visit median 12 minutes), with review of a brochure introducing the family member to the ICU including staff, policies and procedures that will be helpful to the family member.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• National Institute on Aging (NIA)

  collaborator NIH

• Regenstrief Institute, Inc.

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, San Francisco

  collaborator OTHER

• Wake Forest University

  collaborator OTHER

• Rush University

  collaborator OTHER

• Indiana University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-06-01

Primary Completion

2026-08-31

Completion

2026-08-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations