Role of Family Members in Pain Management in Adult Critical Care

This review describes family member involvement in intensive care unit pain assessment and management and generates implications for clinical practice, education, and future research. A literature review was performed in MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, and CINAHL databases from their inception until April 30, 2019. Only 11 studies addressing the topic were identified, and the current quality of evidence is low. Family members can be involved in pain assessment by describing patients’ pain behaviors and in pain management by selecting and delivering nonpharmacological interventions tailored to patients’ needs, if the family members feel comfortable with this role. More-rigorous research is required to describe the role of family members in patients’ pain assessment and management. Advancing knowledge in this field could improve patients’ and family members’ experiences with pain assessment and management in the intensive care unit.