Being in limbo The experience of critical illness in intensive care and beyond英文文献资料.docVIP

Open Journal of Nursing, 2012, 2, 270-276 OJN /10.4236/ojn.2012.23041 Published Online September 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ojn/) Being in limbo: The experience of critical illness in intensive care and beyond Agness C. Tembo , Vicki Parker , Isabel Higgins 1,2 3,4 1,3 1 2 3 4 University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia Newcastle Private Hospital, New Lambton Heights, Australia University of New England, Armidale, Australia John Hunter Hospital, New Lambton Heights, Australia Email: Agness.Tembo@.au Received 12 April 2012; revised 16 May 2012; accepted 28 May 2012 ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION Critical illness is a sudden traumatising lived experi- ence that affects the sufferer and their family throw- ing them into a crisis situation [1,2]. It is disruptive and alienating. Critically ill patients emerging from unconsciousness often suffer from confusion that could be momentary or lasting. There is an increasing num- ber of critical illness survivors in intensive care units Numerous studies have examined the experience of critical illness [3-5]. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the experiences of patients have been consistent over time [6] despite advances in technology and changes in ICU practice. Attempts to make the experience of critical illness better in ICU have also been made. This is evi- denced by the major technological advances in mechani- cal ventilation like early tracheostomy and innovations in ICU practices particularly sedation practices. These ef- forts have mostly been directed at reducing ventilator time and ICU length of stay (LOS) [7,8], promoting comfort, wakefulness and the ability of patients to inter- act [9], prevention of complications associated with con- tinuous deep sedation such as prolonged mechanical ventilation [8,10] and ventilator acquired pneumonia [8, 10]. I