Table 1.

Footprints pilot work and results

Phase	Methods	Results
1	20 semi-structured interviews with ICU staff to generate items for the Footprints Form 8 nurses, 2 physicians, 5 respiratory therapists, 2 physiotherapists, 1 chaplain, 1 medical student and 1 research coordinator	Paper-based form was favoured. Form to be placed in common location (ie, front of the medical chart). Selected items from form transcribed onto whiteboard in the patient’s room. Photo of the patient encouraged was for the whiteboard.
2	The Footprints Whiteboards were installed in patients’ rooms to display essential information from the Footprints Form The Footprints Form was pilot tested with the families of 16 patients	16 patients aged 48–89 years (mean 67.1 years) were included. 5 families (participation rate 93.8%) completed the form (7 interviewer-administered and 8 self-administered). Whiteboard data: the date, the patient’s preferred name, clinician, name of the family spokesperson, aids used at home, milestones in the patient’s life, important issues to share and a message centre for family and ICU team.
3	The Footprints Form and Whiteboard was administered for 26 additional patients Feedback was elicited from family members (verbal and written) and clinicians (verbal)	21 families and 30 clinicians (response rates 80.4%, 100%, respectively). Footprints was perceived to foster holistic, personalised care and promote humanism in practice.
4	Footprints Form was used by clinicians on the unit for 5 months	During this period, nurses provided Footprints Forms to families of patients admitted to the ICU and updated the Whiteboards with selected information provided.
5	A positive deviance group brainstorming exercise with 16 interdisciplinary colleagues was held Strategies were identified to encourage completion of the Footprints Forms and Whiteboards, and to generate additional implementation suggestions	Several strategies were generated to increase completion (eg, better accessibility of forms for unit communication clerks and clinicians for distribution, and providing forms in patient rooms and waiting room for families to complete). More results are found in table 3.
6	A 1 month audit of the Footprints Forms and Whiteboards for each patient who had been in the ICU for ≥48 hours was done, regardless of their mechanical ventilation status	57 patients audited serving as baseline audit A. Magnets (100%) and markers (98.2%) for the Whiteboards were widely available, but the Footprints Form was completed for only 9 (15.8%) of patients. Of those 9 patients, 6 (66.7%) had a copy of the Footprints Form hanging from the whiteboard and data from it included on the whiteboard. For 48 patients without completed Footprints Forms, today's date and clinician names were recorded on the whiteboard for 34 (70.8%).

ICU, intensive care unit.