Life in the ICU

I have just spent my first week in ICU and it has been an interesting experience to date. The one glaring difference between the ICU and many other wards is communication between patient and therapist. Many patients are sedated and unable to respond. Nevertheless, we have learnt that it is still very important to speak to these patients as if they are awake. Because patients aren’t able to respond it is imperative to let them know who you are, what you are planning to do and what is going on around them. It is wrong to assume that someone in their position doesn’t get anxious or stressed by our treatment. The only way we can tell how they are responding is by what the machines tell us (HR, BP, SpO2 etc etc). On occasions we have introduced ourselves as physios and the patients HR and BP immediately goes up, so we know they can hear us! Realising its importance, this is what I have been working hard on this week, therapist-patient communication….even if it is in a slightly different setting than usual.