Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Jun 2006
Communication interaction in ICU--Patient and staff experiences and perceptions.
Patients on intensive care units (ICU) have difficulty with communication [Menzel LK. Factors related to the emotional responses of intubated patients to being unable to speak. Heart Lung 1998; 27(4):245-52]. ⋯ This multi-centre pilot study aimed to investigate staff and patient perceptions and experiences of communication within ICUs. A short questionnaire was devised using semi-structured interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative information. Patterns were identified including insights into SLT service delivery and possible directions for future research and development.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Jun 2006
Severely ill ICU patients recall of factual events and unreal experiences of hospital admission and ICU stay--3 and 12 months after discharge.
There is a lack of knowledge regarding how critically ill patients recall of the ICU and their life-threatening condition changes over time. The purpose of this study is to describe critically ill and ventilator-treated patients' recollections of both factual events and unreal experiences at 3 and 12 months following discharge from the ICU. The study is qualitative and encompasses nine critically ill ICU patients, ventilator-treated for more than 72 h. The participants were interviewed twice, at 3 and 12 months after their discharge from the ICU. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The patients in this study reported unreal experiences, memory confusion and/or disturbances before admittance to the ICU and before their respirator treatment. Their "unreal experiences" were far clearer than their memories of factual occurrences. Patients' fragmentary memories of factual events and their recall of unreal experiences were practically unchanged after 12 month. Their unreal experiences could still be recalled and related after 12 months, but not with the same expression and feeling as earlier (3 months). The unreal experiences were not - after 12 months - their initial recollections, as they had been after 3 months. ⋯ Patients' recollections of both factual events and unreal experiences show very little variation between 3 and 12 months. The stability of long-term memory after 12 months shows that the recollection of their experiences had been both traumatic and emotionally charged. This study shows that critically ill patients were affected by cognitive disturbances and/or disturbed memory before their arrival at the ICU. This result indicates the need of ICU follow-up clinics.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Jun 2006
Voices from the floor: Nurses' perceptions of the medical emergency team.
Nurses are the main group of clinicians who activate the medical emergency team (MET), placing them in an excellent position to provide valuable insights regarding the effectiveness of this system. This descriptive study aimed to explore nurses' satisfaction with the MET, perceived benefits and suggestions for improvement. The study also sought to examine the characteristics of nurses who were more likely to activate the MET. ⋯ Overall, nurses were satisfied with the MET, with suggestions for improvement including more education on medical emergencies for both ward and MET staff. Whilst the MET system is meeting the expectations of the majority of ward nurses, there is room for improvement, which includes a more positive attitude of the MET when summoned for 'borderline' cases. Investment in ongoing education of clinicians and interdisciplinary communication is likely to encourage less experienced nurses to utilise this system, whilst decreasing the reticence of some nurses to call the MET.