2024 National Teaching Institute Research Abstracts

Purpose: To test the effectiveness of an investigatorcreated family bereavement intervention, Life Touched, on family members' and/or friends' (FM/Fs') perception of their loved one's dying.The Life Touched intervention is a credit card-sized, laminated-paper copy of the patient's thumbprints in a heart shape given to FM/Fs to provide for a better patient-dying process and to improve the bereavement experience.Background/Significance: Bereavement interventions may provide emotional or spiritual support for FM/ Fs of patients dying in the intensive care unit (ICU).However, we found only 2 bereavement intervention studies for FM/Fs whose adult loved ones were dying in the ICU; thus, more research was needed.We hypothesized that the Life Touched bereavement intervention would improve the FM/Fs' perception of the dying and bereavement process.Method: After receiving ethical approval, a mixed-methods design with convenience sampling was conducted in a 22-bed ICU.A total of 67 adult (>18 years old) FM/Fs of an adult patient dying in the ICU who had a do-notresuscitate order, limited status, or comfort care consented to participate.Participants received the Life Touched intervention and participated in a telephone follow-up interview 3 weeks after the patient's death.In the interview, FM/Fs were asked about the helpfulness or unhelpfulness of the intervention and were asked to recommend improvements for the Life Touched intervention.Post hoc power was adequate (0.89).Patient variables (ie, age, provided care) and information on FM/F ethnicity, race, religious affiliation, and relationship to the patient were collected using an investigatordeveloped tool.Result: Patients were a mean (SD) of 70 (18.1)years old and 55.6% received comfort care.Most of the 67 FM/Fs self-identified as non-Hispanic (80.6%) and White (59.7%).Family members (94% of the total FM/F cohort) with a Protestant (31.3%, n = 21), Catholic (35.9%, n = 24), or other (19.4%, n = 13) religious affiliation found the Life Touched intervention very helpful (70.4%).The FM/Fs found the intervention most helpful as a tangible reminder and sharable memento (81%) and were unable to identify what was unhelpful