Family engagement has been highlighted as an essential component of care in the ABCDEF bundle, an evidence-based guide for clinicians working in intensive care units (ICUs) [1]. Involving families in ICU care has been linked with improved physical [2] and psychological [3,4] outcomes in patients with critical illness. Therefore, promoting family engagement has become an increasingly important priority in the implementation of critical care interventions.

Although family engagement is essential for improving the quality of critical care, family members often experience substantial psychological burdens, such as depression, anxiety, and stress, when caring for their relatives with critical illness [5,6]. These burdens not only adversely affect families’ quality of life (QoL) [7] but are also linked to the mental health and QoL of patients themselves [8,9]. In addition, emotional distress during the patient’s ICU stay can reduce family members’ willingness and ability to engage in care activities and decision-making [10,11].

To effectively engage family in critical care, the beliefs and behaviors of family members regarding their involvement in the care process should be taken into account [12]. Therefore, employing a dependable and reliable tool for evaluating the extent of family engagement in critical care is essential. Currently, the FAMily Engagement (FAME) instrument, developed by Goldfarb and colleagues [13], is the only tool available for measuring both the degree and domains of family engagement in ICU care. This instrument evaluates seven domains: perception of engagement, family presence, communication/education, decision-making, direct care, family-centered care, and family needs [13], demonstrating satisfactory reliability and validity [14,15]. However, the degree and domains of family engagement in ICUs among Chinese-speaking populations remain unexplored.

To this end, we aimed to translate the FAME instrument into Traditional Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties among family members of ICU patients.