A description of the needs of family members of patients hospitalized in a coronary care unit

The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify the needs of family members of patients hospitalized in a coronary care unit for 24-48 hours. The participants were 8 spouses of patients hospitalized in a coronary care unit for less than 48 hours. The instrument used was developed by the investigator and included four open-ended questions with probes. Eight qualitative content analyses at the latent level were performed on the data obtained from structured interviews. A five-step process adapted from Colazzi (1978) was used to organized the data inductively into categories. The following nine categories of needs were identified: information, support, proximity, assurance, comfort, helpful, express feelings, express thoughts, and reflect. The findings indicated that all of the participants had all nine categories of needs. Implications for nursing practice and research were presented.