title: Family Perceptions of Intensive Care Unit Nurses' Roles: A Greek Perspective.
abstract: This study was done in order to examine the role of the nurse in families with critically ill patients as perceived by family members. A descriptive design was conducted with 93 family members aged 18-53 years from a 6-bed intensive care unit in a Greek Hospital. An anonymous self-completed questionnaire recording demographic data and the questionnaire Family members perception of nurses behavioral role expectation/enactment scale of Hickey and Lewandowski was used. Parametric statistic tests were used to examine the research questions. Intensive care unit (ICU) patients' family members expect nurses to make them feel they can ask whatever they want whenever they want, placing great emphasis on communicating with one another and on participating in decision making to the progress of patient care. The age seems to correlate with the expectation from nurse to meet the role of training on how to handle the patient. Nurses did well with regard to meeting family members' expectations. Most family members assessed positively the role of ICU nurse confirming the need for communication, and clear support of families.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Technological Educational Institute of Larisa , Greece.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malliarou
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing A, Laboratory of Community Heath Nursing, Technological Educational Institute of Athens , Greece.
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gerogianni
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing A, Laboratory of Community Heath Nursing, Technological Educational Institute of Athens , Greece.
authors.forename: Fotoula
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Babatsikou
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Technological Educational Institute of Larisa , Greece.
authors.forename: Evaggelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kotrotsiou
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Human Movement and Quality of Life Sciences, University of Peloponnese , Sparta Lakonias, Greece.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zyga
keywords: ICU; family; member; nurse; role