Science AI Journal
Health Professions · Research topic

Open research questions in Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units

98 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 772 Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • There is a limited evidence on the role of peer mentorship in hospital-based rehabilitation during ongoing military conflict. The study aims to fill this gap by examining the benefits and barriers of peer mentorship in this context.

    Peer mentorship for physically injured veterans in healthcare settings during ongoing military conflict: benefits and barriers · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identified challenges in peer mentoring across three domains: technical-functional (hospital-related rehabilitation over- load, adequacy of matching and timing), emotional (managing rejec- tion, shattering the illusion of complete recovery, appearance-related avoidance), and cognitive (discrepancies in worldview and recogniz- ing family’s role during the acute phase of hospitalization) - some of which have not been previously documented in the literature.

    Peer mentorship for physically injured veterans in healthcare settings during ongoing military conflict: benefits and barriers · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on strategies to mitigate these anxieties and improve support for families.

    Exploring and comparing the relationship between maternal anxiety and children’s anxiety during admission, hospitalization, and discharge in pediatric wards of Iranian hospitals · 2024 · DOI

  • Despite the importance of communication and other aspects of engagement during inpatient postpartum care, little is known about how care is experienced during this period from families' perspectives.

    Birthing parent and companion verbal reactions following interactions with inpatient postpartum health care team members: an observational study using naturalistic filming · 2024 · DOI

  • Thus far, little is known regarding the impact of this stay on parents and their healthy children for whom no continuous aftercare services are offered.

    Parents’ experiences of family and daily life after their child’s stay in the pediatric intensive care unit: a qualitative descriptive study · 2024 · DOI

  • Delirium is associated with an increased risk of mortality, higher healthcare costs, prolonged ICU stays, and long-term cognitive impairment. Family members' expectations and needs may conflict with or require guidance by ICU nurses.

    Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards family engagement in delirium management among intensive care unit nurses: a multicenter cross-sectional study · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of ICU nurses regarding family engagement in delirium management. The study aims to address this gap by investigating the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of ICU nurses in China.

    Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards family engagement in delirium management among intensive care unit nurses: a multicenter cross-sectional study · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the implementation of humanization in nursing practice, - The gap is due to various challenges, including lack of resources and structural problems in the healthcare system

    A IMPORTÂNCIA DA HUMANIZAÇÃO NO FORTALECIMENTO DO VÍNCULO ENTRE ENFERMAGEM, PACIENTE E FAMÍLIA NO PROCESSO DE CUIDADO · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of synthesis of the Escala FACES' contributions to clinical reasoning and nursing interventions - The need for a comprehensive review of the Escala FACES' use in nursing practice and research

    A ESCALA FACES (I A IV) COMO INSTRUMENTO DE AVALIAÇÃO DO FUNCIONAMENTO FAMILIAR EM ENFERMAGEM: UM PROTOCOLO DE SCOPING REVIEW · 2026 · DOI

  • The study faced challenges in terms of limited resources and infrastructure in the Indian healthcare system. The study had to address ethical and medicolegal concerns raised by clinicians.

    Family-led post-ICU discharge intervention for tracheostomized patients in India: Feasibility and formative impact evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on the summative evaluation of the AIIMS ICU Rehabilitation intervention. The study suggests that initial scale-up is best suited for neurotrauma, post-neurosurgical stroke, and hypoxic brain injury dyads.

    Family-led post-ICU discharge intervention for tracheostomized patients in India: Feasibility and formative impact evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on how parents of children with CHD experience and perceive their participation during pre- and postoperative monitoring of vital signs.

    Parental participation during children’s vital sign monitoring in connection with surgery for congenital heart disease · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding about the experiences of family members of patients with COVID-19 who died in intensive care units, particularly in Asian cultural contexts.

    Experiences of Thai Family Members of Patients with COVID-19 who died in Intensive Care Units: A Phenomenological Study · 2026 · DOI

  • This study’s strengths include the use of in-depth interviews, which generated rich insights into the experiences of family members of COVID-19 patients who died in the intensive care unit. The inclusion of participants from diverse backgrounds and settings further enhanced the depth and richness of the data. However, there are some limitations; data collection was conducted via online interviews, which posed challenges related to audio-visual quality and internet stability. These technical limitations occasionally disrupted the flow of interviews and complicated transcription and analysis, requiring more attentive listening. The lack of face-to-face interaction during the video interviews might have affected the interpretation of non-verbal cues compared to traditional in-person interviews. As the visual field was limited to what the camera could capture, the researcher was unable to observe the environment beyond the camera’s frame and therefore could not determine whether external factors might have influenced participants’ emotional expression during the interview. In addition, the researcher was unable to convey empathy through natural non-verbal communication, such as sustained eye contact or supportive physical gestures, as would typically occur in traditional face-to-face interviews. Additionally, online data collection necessitated participants’ familiarity with video communication, resulting in a sample predominantly composed of younger family members and potentially excluding those with limited digital access. Therefore, the transferability of the findings to the broader bereaved population may be limited. This study did not explore the experiences of family members who had longer-standing relationships with the deceased, such as parents, siblings, or life partners. These individuals are often older adults who may have limited familiarity with online communication technologies. It is possible that this group may experience stronger emotional bonds with the deceased Experiences of Thai Family Members of Patients with COVID-19Pacific Rim Int J Nurs Res • July-September 2026 and hold different perspectives on the loss, potentially involving more complex or nuanced experiences than those reported by younger family members. In addition, due to ethical considerations, the study excluded participants who had clinically significant prolonged grief. Exploring the experiences of this group could provide valuable insights into the factors that contribute to more persistent or prolonged bereavement responses.

    Experiences of Thai Family Members of Patients with COVID-19 who died in Intensive Care Units: A Phenomenological Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore the long-term effects of the pandemic on nursing students' willingness to provide care. Further studies should investigate the impact of clinical practice on nursing students' willingness to provide care.

    Nursing Students’ Desire for Care in Pandemic: A Qualitative Research · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the willingness of nursing students to provide care after receiving distance education during the pandemic. The study aims to address this gap.

    Nursing Students’ Desire for Care in Pandemic: A Qualitative Research · 2026 · DOI

  • Future studies should develop and evaluate intervention programs designed to improve ICU nurses' informative and affiliative communication competencies.

    Factors Influencing Care Satisfaction among Family Members of Patients in the Intensive Care Unit · 2026 · DOI

  • The relationships between family care satisfaction and health literacy, nurse communication style, and hospital physical environment are not well understood. Prior studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding the factors influencing family care satisfaction.

    Factors Influencing Care Satisfaction among Family Members of Patients in the Intensive Care Unit · 2026 · DOI

  • The study used a one-group pretest-posttest design, which may limit the generalizability of the results. The lack of a control group may have introduced bias into the study. The possible common method bias resulting from single-session data collecting should be considered when interpreting the results.

    Evaluation of nursing snippet-based intervention on parents’ burden and self-efficacy towards caring for their children undergoing limb lengthening surgery · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the use of snippet-based interventions in nursing education for parents of children undergoing limb lengthening surgery. Prior studies have not fully explored the effect of snippet-based interventions on parents' burden and self-efficacy.

    Evaluation of nursing snippet-based intervention on parents’ burden and self-efficacy towards caring for their children undergoing limb lengthening surgery · 2026 · DOI

  • La falta de atención integral que incluya la salud mental desde el ingreso a urgencias en México. La necesidad de fortalecer la formación de profesionales de la salud sensibilizados en sepsis y salud mental.

    Salud mental en sobrevivientes de sepsis: desafíos para su atención en el servicio de urgencias médicas en México · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of research on the reconfiguration of care responsibilities in Korean society after the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for a future signals analysis approach to identify the major agendas of domestic labor and childcare.

    Reconstructing the Division of Care Responsibilities: Analysis of Future Signals using Online News on Domestic Work and Childcare · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the psychological impact of home CPAP or NIV on parents and families - The current research is limited or indirect

    Has any research been conducted on the psychological impact on parents and families of children receiving Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or Non-Invasive Ventilation at home? · 2026 · DOI

  • No se encontraron estudios que caractericen los conocimientos, actitudes y experiencias de familiares de pacientes atendidos por intento suicida en el contexto dominicano.

    Conocimientos, actitudes y experiencias familiares ante el intento suicida: estudio mixto en un hospital regional dominicano · 2026 · DOI

  • Although family resilience helps mitigate these issues, systematic research on experiences and processes of family resilience operating in ICU family members is still lacking.

    Family Resilience Among Family Members of Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Qualitative Meta‐Synthesis · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units sub-topic

This page shows what the Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, run the guided finder — it searches the gap library on demand and checks candidates against 250M+ OpenAlex works.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Health Professions

Physical Education and Pedagogy
1,094 open questions
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
661 open questions
Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes
649 open questions
Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
570 open questions
Community Health and Development
562 open questions
Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions
534 open questions
Mental Health and Patient Involvement
488 open questions
Temporomandibular Joint Disorders
474 open questions
98 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 772 Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 120,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? A Tier 1–5 acceptance probability in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck prior-publication & salami-slicing risk across 8 sources.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.