The figure of the Psychologist in Critical Care
The demand for severity, urgency, risk of death or its imminence, puts on the limit the capacity of emotional equilibrium in the human being. For the patient, ICU admission is a cut in the "existential continuity." Nowadays, there is ample knowledge regarding the emotional problems linked to the critical illness, the treatments required, the associated experiences and the post-ICU difficulties [...]
Humanizing the intensive care unit: a matter of all the stakeholders
I have read with special attention and interest the editorial Humanizing the intensive care unit recently published in Critical Care by Wilson et at. First of all, I would like to congratulate the authors for inviting us to reflect on a topic that I consider as a priority for the development of an excellent management in intensive care units. If [...]
Healing alone: the story of a first-year doctor and a widower in hospital
We usually start some of our trainings in #humantools remembering those moments (remote for some) in which we make the decision to dedicate our professional future to health care. We took a decision, ruling out others, probably moved by what, a priori, we consider as characteristics of our professions: principle of service, respect for dignity and compassion among others. Wrapped [...]
An instrument to predic psychological morbidity at ICU discharge
Recently has been published Intensive Care Medicine as Open Access the original Development of an ICU discharge instrument predicting psychological morbidity: a multinational study. As you know, one of three ICU survivors has the psychological PICS components depression, post-traumatic stress (PTS) and anxiety. The aim of this study was to develop a screening instrument for use at ICU discharge, in [...]
Patient and family engagement in the ICU
Last December, Journal of Critical Care published the article Patient and family engagement in the ICU: report from the task force of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine, thanks to the leadership of Ruth Kleinpell. Patient and family engagement in the ICU has demosntrated in a recent systematic review and meta-analisys an impact on ICU length of stay [...]