ABSTRACT
This chapter provides guidance on how to generate robust evidence to understand the effects of critical care interventions. It shows that some introductory information is offered about the nature and purpose of undertaking evaluation work. The chapter argues that a series of key methodological, ethical and practical issues are provided to help design and successfully evaluate interventions to improve collaboration between critical care staff, patients and families. A key purpose of evaluation is to make informed judgments about the usefulness of implemented interventions/activities. An evaluation of an intervention may be focused on its inputs, processes, outcomes and/or impacts. All evaluations of interventions to improve collaboration between critical care staff, patients and families should aim to employ as rigorous evaluation methods as possible within resource constraints. There are a number of quantitative and qualitative evaluation designs available for use, as well as the option to combine approaches to produce a mixed-methods evaluation.
