Reasons for hesitating to voice concerns among respondents who had concerns
| Overall n=504 | Current ICU admission n=29* | Prior ICU admission n=475† | |
| Reason(s) I hesitate to tell a member of the medical team about concerns‡ | |||
| I don’t want to be labelled as a ‘troublemaker’. | 173 (34.3) | 9 (31.0) | 164 (34.5) |
| The team is too busy for an extra discussion. | 162 (32.1) | 12 (41.4) | 150 (31.6) |
| I don’t know how to raise my concern or who to talk to. | 159 (31.5) | 6 (20.7) | 153 (32.2) |
| I am afraid of seeming like I don’t understand medical concepts. | 114 (22.6) | 9 (31.0) | 105 (22.1) |
| I don’t want to harm my relationship with members of the medical team. | 104 (20.6) | 7 (24.1) | 97 (20.4) |
| Nothing would be done about my concerns. | 92 (18.3) | 1 (3.4) | 91 (19.2) |
| It isn’t my place to question the team. | 78 (15.5) | 1 (3.4) | 77 (16.2) |
| I don’t want to get the healthcare provider in trouble. | 21 (4.2) | 2 (6.9) | 19 (4.0) |
| Other§ | 19 (3.8) | 3 (10.3) | 16 (3.4) |
↵*In the current family cohort, 2/105 individuals did not respond to this question and 16/103 participants did not have concerns. Among the remaining respondents, 29/87 who had concerns indicated one or more reasons why they would hesitate to speak up and 58/87 indicated that they would not hesitate to speak up.
↵†Among internet participants, 181/1050 did not have concerns. Among the remaining respondents, 475/869 individuals who had concerns indicated one or more reasons why they would hesitate to speak up and 394/869 indicated that they would not hesitate to speak up.
↵‡Presented as percentages, using the n indicated in the column header as the denominator, representing the number of respondents who selected at least one reason to hesitate. Percentages do not sum to 100 because participants could select up to three responses.
§‘Other’ responses included confusion or inability to remember questions, shy personality, perception that team is not interested or doesn’t care, fear of retribution and lack of privacy/family dynamics.
ICU, intensive care unit.