Brief description of media:

For years it has been known that many patients who survive critical illness do not return to their original state of health, resulting in long-term consequences of critical illness. Weakness acquired in the intensive care unit (ICU) is a physical consequence occurring in 25% to 80% of patients who receive mechanical ventilation for more than 4 days and in 50% to 75% of patients with sepsis. Nearly all patients affected with ICU-acquired weakness have symptoms that persist years later. Issues with cognitive function occur in 30% to 80% of ICU survivors and include memory, planning, problem-solving, visual-spatial, and processing problems.

Brief description of media:

For years it has been known that many patients who survive critical illness do not return to their original state of health, resulting in long-term consequences of critical illness. Weakness acquired in the intensive care unit (ICU) is a physical consequence occurring in 25% to 80% of patients who receive mechanical ventilation for more than 4 days and in 50% to 75% of patients with sepsis. Nearly all patients affected with ICU-acquired weakness have symptoms that persist years later. Issues with cognitive function occur in 30% to 80% of ICU survivors and include memory, planning, problem-solving, visual-spatial, and processing problems. Cognitive consequences may improve during the months after discharge. However, 25% of patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have long-term persistent cognitive impairment 6 years after discharge.

In several studies,1-3 survivors of severe sepsis who were more than 65 years of age still had cognitive impairment 8 years after hospital discharge. Anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances can last from months to years. Survivors also experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) long-term, with an incidence between 10% and 50% and persisting for up to 8 years. Follow-up studies longer than 8 years have not been reported, and for some survivors, these consequences of critical illness may not resolve.

Brief description of media:

The Patient Communicator app by the Society of Critical Care Medicine is designed to improve communication among patients, families, and caregivers. The app can help ease the stress of a hospital stay.

Brief description of media:

This guide is for:
• People who have survived a frightening medical experience, such as being admitted to
critical care (intensive care).
• People who have been hospitalized with severe medical problems related to COVID-19.
• Their family and friends.
• Mental health and medical professionals who want to understand more about how to help.
If you have had any of the experiences described in this guide, you might find some of the examples ‘triggering’ or upsetting. Remember that there is nothing in this guide which can harm you, and that learning about what has happened (and is still happening) to you can help your recovery. We suggest that you read it slowly in sections, and that if you find it too overwhelming to approach it with the help of a health professional.

Brief description of media:

The guide gives information about: How you might feel after spending time in intensive care. Psychoeducation about PTSD. Things about intensive care that can contribute to the development of PTSD. Information about delirium. Psychological approaches to treating PTSD. Signposting to evidence-based treatment. Information for mental health professionals working with patients who have PTSD following admission to intensive care.

Brief description of media:

This Facilitator’s Guide contains an overview of each video, strategies to create an environment in which the learners are allowed to reflect openly and recognize good and poor communication, a template for showing the video, suggestions for facilitating debriefing discussions, and additional questions to facilitate conversation on specific elements addressed in each video.

Brief description of media:

This video series and accompanying educational materials are intended to facilitate discussion within interprofessional teams around communication and collaboration in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially as it pertains to the elements of the ABCCEF bundle. The ABCDEF bundle is a set of interconnected and interdependent evidence-based guideline-recommended interventions that includes the following elements:
- Assess, Prevent, and Manage Pain
- Both Spontaneous Awakening Trials and Spontaneous Breathing Trials
- Choice of Analgesia and Sedation
- Delirium: Assess, Prevent and Manage
- Early Mobility and Exercise
- Family Engagement and Empowerment

Brief description of media:

John Hopkins Medicine: Results of a multi-institutional national study of nearly 700 people who survived life-threatening illness with a stay in an intensive care unit suggest that a substantial majority of them are at high risk for persistent depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder -- especially if they are female, young and unemployed.

Brief description of media:

John Hopkins Medicine: Results of a multi-institutional national study of nearly 700 people who survived life-threatening illness with a stay in an intensive care unit suggest that a substantial majority of them are at high risk for persistent depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder -- especially if they are female, young and unemployed.

Brief description of media:

Background: Because critical illness survivors frequently experience several long-term psychological impairments altering quality of life after ICU, there is a trend towards increasing follow-up care, mainly via ICU follow-up clinics. Despite these and other initiatives, understanding of patient’s post-ICU needs to help them cope with their problems and subsequently improve quality of life is largely lacking. Our aim was therefore to assess the needs, expectations and wishes in ICU survivors to receive information with the purpose to help them better grasp ICU treatment. In addition, we assessed the perceived burden of psychological trauma after ICU treatment and the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) up to 2.5 years after ICU discharge.

Methods: In a multicenter, retrospective cross-sectional cohort study, the needs and preferred intervention methods were assessed using a self-composed inventory in adult mechanically ventilated ICU survivors (n= 43). Additionally, the Impact of Event Scale Revised, the Beck Depression Inventory, the EuroQol-5D-5L, and the Short-Form 12 were used to assess psychological burden and HRQoL.

Results: A substantial proportion of all ICU survivors (59%, 95% CI 44% to 74%) suffered from psychological impairments after ICU treatment. Seventy-five percent of these patients expressed a wish to receive information, but only 36% desired to receive this information using a commonly used information brochure. In contrast, 71% of these patients had a wish to receive information using a video film/VR. Furthermore, only 33% of these patients was satisfied with the information provided by their treating hospital. Patients with psychological PICS reported a worse HRQoL as compared to a normative Dutch sample (P< 0.001) and as compared to patients without psychological PICS (P< 0.01).

Conclusions: In a Dutch cohort of critical illness survivors, a substantial part of ICU survivors suffer from psychological impairments, such as PTSD and depression, which was associated with a worse HRQoL. These patients are in need of information, have no desire using an information brochure, but are willing to receive information using a video film/virtual reality module. These results support the exploration of such an intervention.

Brief description of media:

Background: Because critical illness survivors frequently experience several long-term psychological impairments altering quality of life after ICU, there is a trend towards increasing follow-up care, mainly via ICU follow-up clinics. Despite these and other initiatives, understanding of patient’s post-ICU needs to help them cope with their problems and subsequently improve quality of life is largely lacking. Our aim was therefore to assess the needs, expectations and wishes in ICU survivors to receive information with the purpose to help them better grasp ICU treatment. In addition, we assessed the perceived burden of psychological trauma after ICU treatment and the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) up to 2.5 years after ICU discharge.

Methods: In a multicenter, retrospective cross-sectional cohort study, the needs and preferred intervention methods were assessed using a self-composed inventory in adult mechanically ventilated ICU survivors (n = 43). Additionally, the Impact of Event Scale Revised, the Beck Depression Inventory, the EuroQol-5D-5L, and the Short-Form 12 were used to assess psychological burden and HRQoL.

Results: A substantial proportion of all ICU survivors (59%, 95% CI 44% to 74%) suffered from psychological impairments after ICU treatment. Seventy-five percent of these patients expressed a wish to receive information, but only 36% desired to receive this information using a commonly used information brochure. In contrast, 71% of these patients had a wish to receive information using a video film/VR. Furthermore, only 33% of these patients was satisfied with the information provided by their treating hospital. Patients with psychological PICS reported a worse HRQoL as compared to a normative Dutch sample (P < 0.001) and as compared to patients without psychological PICS (P < 0.01).

Conclusions: In a Dutch cohort of critical illness survivors, a substantial part of ICU survivors suffer from psychological impairments, such as PTSD and depression, which was associated with a worse HRQoL. These patients are in need of information, have no desire using an information brochure, but are willing to receive information using a video film/virtual reality module. These results support the exploration of such an intervention.

Brief description of media:

Critical care units’ nurses should seek to develop collaborative relationships with patients’ family members based on their needs and help them to cope with their distress. The objective of this study was to find out the perception of nurses on needs of family members of patients admitted to critical care units.