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My ICU Guide - ICU Questionnaire (Heatlh Care Professional)

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  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Please review the text contained in the questionnaire, ask all the questions and reword answers in the space provided. Along the way, we have included several tips or suggestions on how to move this discussion forward with a family
  • Your Intensive Care Unit (ICU) staff realize that having a family member or friend in the ICU can be very stressful. The ICU may seem like a strange environment with lots of machines, noises and monitors. ICU patients are usually very sick. You may have a lot of questions about the care your family member may receive. The ICU team is here to help you get the information and support you need.

    This questionnaire will ask questions about the patient in the ICU, their values, important decision making situations, and the experience in the ICU. It is divided into 8 pages. At the end of the questionnaire, an individualized report will be generated summarizing your responses. This information may be helpful to you and can be provided to the health care team to help them better understand the patient and family. By providing your email address, you will be able to save the questionnaire to return to later and receive an emailed copy of the report.

  • By providing your email address, you will be able to save the questionnaire to return to later and receive an emailed copy of the report.
  • Interviewer: Probe as to the familiarity with the ICU and need for general orientation to the ICU. Provide ICU information leaflet if available, or refer to the Learn About the ICU section of this website.
  • Help Us Get To Know You

  • By family, we mean two or more persons who are related in any way - biologically, legally or emotionally.

  • Interviewer: Probe about the size, nature, and characteristics of the family if not volunteered. For example: How does your family make decisions? Who will be the family spokesperson? What is the makeup of the family (children, relatives, friends, spouse, etc.) and are they close by?

  • Depression = Feeling sad

  • Anxiety = Feeling nervous

  • Interviewer: Based on responses, refer to the following sections of this website to provide added support to the caregiver/family member:

    Looking After Yourself

    When a family member is in the ICU

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  • Since your family member cannot effectively communicate, you have an opportunity to represent them and make sure they receive the best care possible. We have prepared this questionnaire to help you in your role as their advocate or representative, so that together we can make the best decisions on behalf of your family member. To begin, we need your help getting to know your family member as a person, not just as a patient.

  • Help Us Get To Know Your Family Member

  • Probe regarding how the patient likes to be called (ie: preferred name) if not volunteered.
  • Choose ONE.
  • NOTE: If you are having trouble deciding between two options, pick the higher functioning level.
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  • Please help us understand the patient’s physical status prior to this hospital admission.

  • Palliative Performance Scale (PPS v.2)

  • INSTRUCTIONS TO INTERVIEWER

    1. The PPS should be completed on initial assessment at all sites and weekly thereafter.
    2. The PPS can be recorded by a staff who are familiar with the person’s functional status, such as rehabilitation, nursing or medical staff.
    3. Recording of the PPS is on the consultation form at initial assessment (home care), and weekly there is a row near the bottom of the ESAS graph. 

    4. PPS scores are determined by reading horizontally at each level to find a ‘best fit’ for the patient who is then assigned as the PPS% score.
    5. Begin at the left column and read downwards until the appropriate ambulation level is reached, then read across to the next column and downwards again until the activity/evidence of disease is located. These steps are repeated until all five columns are covered before assigning the actual PPS for that patient. In this way, ‘leftward’ columns (columns to the left of any specific column) are ‘stronger’ determinants and generally take precedence over others.
      Example 1: A patient who spends the majority of the day sitting or lying down due to fatigue from advanced disease and requires considerable assistance to walk even for short distances but who is otherwise fully conscious level with good intake would be scored at PPS 50%. 

      Example 2: A patient who has become paralyzed and quadriplegic requiring total care would be PPS 30%. Although this patient may be placed in a wheelchair (and perhaps seem initially to be at 50%), the score is 30% because he or she would be otherwise totally bed bound due to the disease or complication if it were not for caregivers providing total care including lift/transfer. The patient may have normal intake and full conscious level. 

      Example 3: However, if the patient in example 2 was paraplegic and bed bound but still able to do some self­care such as feed themselves, then the PPS would be higher at 40 or 50% since he or she is not ‘total care.’ 


    STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

    1. We need you to pick one category in each column.
    2. Click on the blue bar below to open the Palliative Performance Scale Chart.
    3. For each section (Ambulation, Activity & Evidence of Disease, Self Care, Intake, Conscious Level) discuss with the family member to choose the appropriate level, and then select it from the drop-down menu below.
    4. After selecting a level for each section, use the lowest PPS level recorded to select an Overall PPS Level.

    © Copyright Notice. The Palliative Performance Scale version 2 (PPSv2) tool is copyright to Victoria Hospice Society and replaces the first PPS published in 1996 [J Pall Care 9(4): 26­32]. It cannot be altered or used in any way other than as intended and described here. Programs may use PPSv2 with appropriate recognition.

  • Click here to see Palliative Performance Scale (PPS v.2) Chart

    PPS Level Ambulation Activity & Evidence of Disease Self-Care Intake Conscious Level
    100% Full Normal activity & work / No evidence of disease Full Normal Full
    90% Full Normal activity & work / Some evidence of disease Full Normal Full
    80% Full Normal activity with effort / Some evidence of disease Full Normal or Reduced Full
    70% Reduced Unable normal job/work / Significant disease Full Normal or Reduced Full
    60% Reduced Unable hobby/house work / Significant disease Occasional assistance necessary Normal or Reduced Full or Confusion
    50% Mainly Sit/Lie Unable to do any work / Extensive disease Considerable assistance required Normal or Reduced Full or Confusion
    40% Mainly in Bed Unable to do most activity / Extensive disease Mainly assistance Normal or Reduced Full or Drowsy +/- Confusion
    30% Totally Bed Bound Unable to do any activity / Extensive disease Requires total care Normal or Reduced Full or Drowsy +/- Confusion
    20% Totally Bed Bound Unable to do any activity / Extensive disease Requires total care Minimal to Sips Full or Drowsy +/- Confusion
    10% Totally Bed Bound Unable to do any activity / Extensive disease Requires total care Mouth Care Only Drowsy or Coma +/- Confusion
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  • Informational Preferences - Family Member Version

  • Many patients in the ICU are unable to make their own medical decisions. In these situations, knowing if they have already communicated their wishes or written them down can be helpful in making decisions about the treatments your family member may receive.

  • These are sometimes referred to as a Living Will, Personal Directive, Healthcare Proxy, Power of Attorney, or Advance Directive. Please select one response. If yes, please bring these documents to the healthcare team. If not, if they have verbally communicated their wishes to you or other family members or friends, please inform the health care team.
  • Making Treatment Decisions in ICU

    The medical team will want to review with you the overall goals of care and may ask you to make some decisions about goals of care and/or treatment options. One of the most important decisions that may arise is whether to continue life-sustaining treatments or remove them in order to refocus the care plan towards either medical management, or comfort measures only.

    Interviewer: Refer to Making Decisions in the ICU to provide more information about making decisions in the ICU and being a Substitute Decision Maker.

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  • What Matters Most (Graphic Values History Tool)

    Content & Images by Peter Allat, Bioethicist
  • The treatment team would like to know more about what matters most to each patient in regards to health care and quality of life. Before we begin, we would like to ask:

  • Quality of Life†

  • This section asks questions to help you think about your family member’s values and preferences for medical treatments. It helps you identify what is really important to them. Your answers will be very helpful to the ICU team in working with you to make the best decisions about the care of your family member. Please think about your family member and the values that they might have, not your own feelings. You do not have to answer every question, but please do the best you can.

  • Quality of Life is the degree of satisfaction, comfort and enjoyment in life, and what makes life worth living.

    This section looks at the value of independence in the patient's quality of life. Consider whether the patient's quality of life would be acceptable if he/she found herself in the following circumstance, with no reasonable chance of improvement.

  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • wheelchair
  • Write the issue(s) here, and rate their importance.
  • † Adapted from Scheunemann LP, Arnold RM, White DB. The facilitated values history: helping surrogates make authentic decisions for incapacitated patients with advanced illness. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 186(6): 15 Sept 2012

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  • Exploring Value Trade-offs

  • What would he/she say is more important:



  • Impact of Decision on Others

    Relationships with family and friends are important to most of us, and our decisions may impact others in many ways (e.g. financially, physically, emotionally).



  • Religious, Spiritual and/or Cultural Beliefs

    Religious, spiritual, and/or cultural beliefs may play an important role in end of life decision making for some people. For others, these beliefs are not important at this time.

  • Please choose ONE.

  • Please note that the above question is meant to be an expression of preference or wishes and should not be considered as an actual treatment decision. Your doctor will talk to you more about these preferences and help you make the right decision for your family member.



  • Considering the option you prefer (your answer to the last question), please answer the following questions:

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  • Decisional Preferences - Family Member Version

  • Please specify.
  • e.g. Spouse, brother or sister, friend, etc.
  • Interviewer: This concludes the portion of the questionairre that requires responses from the family. The next page requires responses from the hospital record. If the patient is 80 years of age or more (to calculate clinical prediction score). Once finished, remember to submit the data, print the report and share the report with the clinical team of the family.

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  • Clinical Prediction Rule

    The following page uses information from the family interview and the hospital chart to calculate a clinical prediction of the patient's outcome. This page only applies to patients 80 years or older. If the patient is aged 80 or older, please provide the following information.
  • APACHE II Calculator
    Please enter a number less than or equal to 71.
  • (at 1 year after ICU admission)
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Copyright Dr. Daren Heyland 2019.