Abstract
The thesis adresses the quality of the process of informing the relatives and significant others of a patient in critical care unit about his/her health status. A deficiency of important information or misunderstanding may cause anxiety and depression in the relatives.
Communication with the patient's family must therefore be done methodically and systematically. The first part of the thesis brings orientation in the main terminology and introduces the already implemented strategies in 80 our country and abroad.
The main objective is to create a guideline for the staff of the critical care unit, to list the priorities for informing the relatives. The empirical part uses quantitative research;a questionnaire survey on a sample of 92 relatives and significant others of critically ill patients from a regional hospital,it analyses the ways in which information is passed from and onto health care professionals and its implications.
The research maps the general view of the relatives on the process of communication and mutual co-operation with the staff. The most interesting finding is the high interest (72%) of the respondents to participate in nursing care for their significant other.
The current process of informing the relatives in this unit is evaluated rather well by the respondents, but it also reveals details to be improved (e.g.giving information in the corridors).The results of the survey will be used to provide a methodological guideline for the unitstaff, with a list of priorities for informing the relatives of critically ill patients.