Background:

Family-centered care is an approach that addresses the needs and values of each family.

Objective:

To know the perceptions of nurses in the cardiac intensive care unit of a hospital center in northern Portugal about relational practices with families in an intensive care unit.

Methodology:

Quantitative, descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study with a sample of 26 nurses, 65.4% (n = 17) female. The PREFUCI-Importance and PREFUCI-Frequency scales were used.

Results:

The practice of "being available to clarify doubts to family members" was the practice most frequently rated by participants as Totally important and implemented Always. The mean PREFUCI total score, calculated by summing the scores of the 15 items in each scale, was 59.5 on the importance scale and 52.69 on the frequency scale.

Conclusion:

Participants showed positive attitudes toward the importance of PREFUCI. However, the frequency of implementation is moderate, with a positive correlation between these two variables, reflecting the need to operationalize these practices.

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