Family-centered care is a common care delivery model in pediatric hospitals. To be truly effective, this care must be conceptualized to include recovery after the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) stay for children and families. Using survey methodology, we sought to identify the child- and family-related outcomes that were most valued by parents of critically ill children. Our goal was to integrate and prioritize approaches to assess and improve these outcomes in clinical practice.1,2 

Little evidence about post–intensive care syndrome (PICS) in pediatrics is currently available. Researchers frequently assess in-hospital mortality rates, but given that survival is common among critically ill children, morbidity also deserves examination.3  Since morbidity following critical illness affects child and family functioning, an increased and deliberate emphasis on family-centered care and the whole child across the critical illness trajectory is needed; this includes life following discharge to home.

A focus on newly...

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