Outcomes associated with family presence at the bedside of critically ill children in the pediatric intensive care unit: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this review is to identify the outcomes of family presence at the bedside of critically ill children in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) that have been reported in the literature.

Introduction: PICU admission is traumatic for critically ill children and their family members, and family presence may alleviate negative outcomes. Family presence may change with family member, patient, health care provider, and institutional circumstances. Prior to designing studies to assess the outcomes of family presence at the bedside, or to conducting a systematic review of the literature, a scoping review is needed to systematically identify and map the outcomes for stakeholders.

Inclusion criteria: This review will include literature addressing outcomes of family presence at the bedside in the PICU on the patient, family members, and health care providers. Emotional, social, psychological, and physiological outcomes will be considered, including outcomes on the provision of PICU care.

Methods: A systematic search will be undertaken across four databases and several sources of gray literature. The review will not be restricted by language, and will be limited to sources published after 1960. The search strategy was designed using text words from titles and abstracts of relevant studies. Title and abstract screening, followed by full text assessment of sources against inclusion criteria, will be completed in duplicate. Data will be extracted by two independent reviewers using a data extraction tool developed by the study team. Data will be presented in tabular format to address findings related to the review objectives.