Easing the journey for ICU patients and families
The intensive care journey can be unexpected and confronting for patients and families, but a new suite of accessible online information aims to ease that journey.
A suite of online content to support patients and families during their ICU journey has been published thanks to collaboration between the intensive care units at Rockingham General Hospital and Fiona Stanley Hospital.
RGH ICU had already developed a booklet a few years ago in response to the needs of its ICU consumers.
“Many ICU patients and family members find their journey overwhelming,” said RGH ICU Nurse Unit Manager Adele King.
“Our resource explained what patients and families may experience during this time and what may be expected in the days and weeks ahead.
“As a printed resource, however, it was costly to produce and couldn’t be updated until the next reprint.”
When former FSH Clinical Nurse Specialist ICU Outreach Cathy Haddock contacted SMHS Corporate Communications seeking a similar resource, the time was right to move the content online.
SMHS Corporate Communications worked extensively with Cathy and Adele to merge the RGH content with content adapted from ICU Steps (external site).
As the editing neared completion, Cathy moved to a new role at Royal Perth Hospital and FSH Registered Nurse Christine Villa supported the project to completion.
The outcome is 15 printable webpages to support ICU patients and their families and friends at both FSH and RGH.
SMHS Corporate Communications Manager Jodie Pudney said this was a true example of how quality online content could meet the needs of consumers across multiple hospital sites.
“SMHS is committed to improving the patient experience, and providing this content online means that it can be accessed at any time by anyone who is going through the ICU journey with us,” Jodie said.
“Online resources also provide significant cost savings, support our commitment to reduce our environmental footprint and can be updated as needed.
“The willingness of the RGH and FSH ICU teams to develop this shared resource has been instrumental in its success.”
