Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

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Reasons for admission :
Emergency admissions
Planned admissions

In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) :
Seeing the patient in ICU for the first time
Suspending normal routines: visiting ICU every day
Uncertainty
Emotional impact on relatives & friends in ICU
Impact on children
Telling others
Relationships within and between families
Receiving information and news from doctors
Sources of information in ICU
Nursing care
Keeping a diary
Sources of support in ICU
At the bedside:
- Waiting for news
- Signs of improvement and progress
The relatives' room and overnight accommodation:
- The relatives' room
- Overnight accommodation

When someone dies :
End of life decisions
Death and bereavement:

On a general ward :
The ward environment and nursing care
Hospital discharge and rehabilitation

Life after leaving the hospital :
Supporting and caring for the ill person at home
Impact on work and finances
Attitudes to life after the hospital experience
Messages to others
Emotional impact on relatives and carers
- Emotional impact on family and friends
- Adjusting to a changed life
Support and information
- Support and information
- Lack of support and information

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Intensive care: experiences of family & friends

People's stories

Aged 41-50

Interview 33

Interview 33

Age at Interview: 42
Sex: Female
Background: Pharmacist, married, no children. Ethnic background/nationality: White British.

Brief outline:Her husband was admitted to ICU after having emergency surgery. It was particularly difficult looking after other family members as well as visiting her husband.

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She is a pharmacist and was pleased doctors explained her husband's illness in lots of detail because it helped her make sense of what was happening to him and why.
Print They explained that he was going to be kept in a medical coma, to give his body a chance to recover. And they took us off to the office and sort of explained things. Spoke to one of the anaethetists and a couple of the nurses were there, the vicar was there, our friend was there. And then the anaesthetist went through the clinical side more, and explained what his physical state was like. And it was quite good in the fact that somehow he had, I guess from the ward staff up in the treatment centre, he found out I'm a pharmacist and that he explained in a reasonably technical manner, he just pitched it just right actually. Because I understood exactly what he was saying. And one of the nurses said to me afterwards, “I was a little concerned because he seemed to be talking in quite technical terms and I was worried that you wouldn't understand”. They explained what they do and she says “Well that all makes sense now.” And that particular nurse was actually a student nurse, she was part-way through a degree course, so like a student nurse, and then there was a senior staff nurse looking after [my husband], who explained everything that was going on.

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