The Four Supports Study: Family Support Intervention in Intensive Care Units

The Four Supports Intervention is a multi-faceted intervention involving the addition of a trained nurse/social worker interventionist to the patient's care team who delivers four kinds of support: emotional support, communication support, decision support, and anticipatory grief support.

In addition to usual care, enrolled surrogates will receive two 15-minute education sessions about critical illness and mechanical ventilation on days 2 and 5, delivered by a research staff coordinator with education in critical care nursing.