Carol's journey in critical care: An Enlighten Project case study

Mcauley, Edel; Johnston, Laura; Johnston, Paul; Shaw, Jess; Bonner, Steve; Chazot, Paul L.

Abstract

Background: The Enlighten Project seeks to explore how awareness of the physical environment in critical care may impact patient well-being and recovery and whether simple changes may improve outcomes. Methods: In this study we follow the journey of a long stay critical care patient, recording her observations and memories of her experiences in different bed spaces of both an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a High Dependency Unit (HDU) at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. Results: Patient's account gave insight into the patient's eye view from various critical care bed spaces and how different positions across a unit can impact patient experience. Different bed positions and side rooms yielded different degrees of positive and negative responses, causing varying levels of comfort/discomfort and contentment/distress. Conclusions: Patient's eye view perspective strongly influenced Carols' experience in Critical care, and she displayed a positive attitude to personalised lighting, aesthetics, and levels of environmental and communication control, which were introduced to the her during the study.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 9, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 14, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Deposit Date: May 4, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 14, 2023
• Journal: Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care
• Print ISSN: 2210-8440
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Pages: 3-7
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tacc.2022.03.001
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1207060