ICU trajectory for families: A scoping review protocol

Objective:The purpose of this scoping review is to mapresearch knowledge about the familymembersexperiences,including healthcare care received, during the entire trajectory of patients' admission to an adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and up to one year following their discharge from ICU or death.Introduction:There is increasing awareness of the impact of a patient's critical illness on family members. Therefore, there is a need to map the emerging body of literature to clarify around publication trendsincluding central findings of studies, temporal focus of studies, conceptual definitions, research designs and measurement tools used. To advance science in this area, it is critically important to identify where gaps in knowledge and methodology persist.Inclusion criteria:Research articlesof any design that focus on the family experience and care with more than 50% of study participants being adult family members of patients who had admission to anAdultICU. Methods:The scoping review will conformto the JBI methodology for scoping reviews; the developed search strategy will be performed inMEDLINE and CINAHL. Publications in English, French, German and Dutch between January 2000 to March2023 will be included due to an international group undertaking the review.Study selection will be detailed using the PRISMA-ScR flow diagram to delineate identification, screeningand included studies. Data will be extracted by the research team, collated,analysedand themedregarding the research questionsand objective of the review.