ICU Nurses' Perceptions of Family‐Inclusive Outdoor Excursions: Enhancing Family Engagement and Humanisation in Intensive Care

BACKGROUND: Patients hospitalised in an intensive care unit (ICU) are vulnerable to dehumanisation. To address this issue, our hospital introduced out-of-ICU activities, including outdoor garden visits with family members. AIM: To explore ICU nurses' perceptions of family-inclusive outdoor excursions for ICU patients regarding the excursions' impacts on patients, their family members, nurses and humanisation in intensive care. STUDY DESIGN: The data collected from each interview were analyzed using a qualitative descriptive approach with inductive coding to identify codes, subcategories, categories, and themes. FINDINGS: The analysis yielded 29 subcategories, 10 categories and 3 themes. The first theme was the excursion program's impacts on patients and families, including five categories: enhanced physical and psychological functions and overall recovery, exposure to pleasant and stimulating experiences, increased patient motivation, comfort and emotional relief for both patients and families and facilitation of active family engagement. The second theme was the excursion program's impacts on nurses, including three categories: recognition of the value of the outdoor excursions, expanded assessment of patients and families facilitated by outdoor excursions and appreciation for multi-professional collaboration. The third theme was the excursion program's impacts on human connections, including two categories: facilitation of meaningful communication and promotion of humanisation in intensive care. CONCLUSIONS: ICU nurses perceived that family-inclusive outdoor excursions supported patients' recovery, facilitated family engagement, reinforced the recognition of patients as individuals rather than solely as clinical cases and advanced the humanisation of intensive care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Family-inclusive outdoor excursions provide multifaceted benefits for patients, families and healthcare providers. These activities enhance patients' experiences of humane care, enable families to participate as active partners in care and strengthen interpersonal connections among patients, families and healthcare teams. Nurses consider multi-professional collaboration to be very important for safe and effective excursions.