Perceptions of the nursing role of family members witha patient in the intensive care unit and evaluation oftheir satisfaction

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nursing role of family members who have patients in the intensive care unit and to determine their satisfaction levels. Materials and Methods: The sample of this descriptive and correlational study consisted of 282 relatives of patients who had patients in the 3rd level intensive care units of a state hospital. The research data were collected between November 13, 2023 and July 31, 2024. The Patient Relative Information Form, the Scale for Evaluating the Satisfaction of Relatives of Inpatients (SESRI) and the Scale for Perception of the Nursing Role of Patient Families (PNRPF) were used as data collection tools. Findings: The mean score of the relatives of the patients from the nurses was found as 75.85% and the mean score of the perceived nursing practices was found as 65.17%. The fact that the mean score of the expectations was higher than the mean score of the perceived shows that the perception of the nursing role was at a moderate level. When the Scale for the Evaluation of the Satisfaction of the Relatives of the Inpatients and its sub-dimensions were examined in the study, it was seen that the highest satisfaction score was 87.76% from the "Care and treatment of the patient" and 80.61% from the "Informing the relative of the patient" sub-dimension and the lowest satisfaction score was 43.91 from the "Intensive care unit waiting environment and logistic support" subdimension. The SESRI score was found as 83.45%. In the study, a moderately significant positive relationship was found between the SESRI and the expected and perceived nursing practices. It was observed that there was a moderate positive significant relationship between the participants' expected nursing practice scores and perceived nursing practice scores (r=0.491, p<0.001) and SESRI scores (r=0.362, p<0.001). It was determined that there was a moderate positive significant relationship between the patients' relatives' perceived nursing practice and SESRI scores (r=0.496, p<0.001). Results: The nursing role perception of family members was found to be moderate, and their satisfaction with the intensive care unit was found to be high. The study found that the most important issues that increased patient relative satisfaction were patient care and treatment and informing patient relatives. In this study, the waiting room and logistic support sub-dimension scores were found to be the lowest. A significant relationship was found between the SESRI and PNRPF scales.