A few years ago, we started going for a walk with ICU patients outside the unit, with the certainty that getting them out of those four walls was something positive.

It is obvious that people are everyday in contact with the natural environment (sky, sun, pure air, nature) and the ICU admittance is unnatural because deprives us of the fundamental essence of the human-being day to day .

Although this activity was carried out for years anecdotally in different ICU around the whole world (basically in patients of very long stay with dependence of the ventilator), needed a more stable, organized and systematic program

Therefore, when we began to see the positive results produced in patients, families and professionals of the ICU at the Hospital San Juan de Dios de Córdoba, this practice became a routine, until it came to be established as a project with a protocol , including in the daily care checklist of each patient.

Time has passed. Many ICU have requested our protocol and created one of their own. Many have started this activity in a regulated manner, although the frequency of their #healingwalks is still scarce. But it is already a tremendous advance starting with a protocol and with the walks as one more element of the humanization Plan of many ICU. It is not easy to implement this culture, to have the staff and resources to do so, and therefore deserve great recognition.

In our ICU, the walk is an everyday activity (when it is indicated). For this, we have implemented human and technical resources, because we think of the walk as a treatment and a care (the same as giving fluids, antibiotics, as well as prokinetics or early mobilization). In addition, we have discovered the enormous improvement of the satisfaction in the work for ICU professionals. So, moving from starting to routine development can be much easier than it seems.

Everything progresses and improves. A four-year experience in crescendo leads us to be at the forefront of this care practice. That is why we have updated our protocol and translated it into English also. And here it is. We hope it will be useful for your: we are all here to help and add.

Finally, a request, a recommendation, a plea: If you have not already done… try it!. And then, tell us.

Lots of H for everybody.

By José Carlos Igeño.