Family meetings in Intensive Care or the elephant in the room
Published: Tue, 06/11/13
Have you ever wondered what is really happening in Family meetings
in Intensive Care? Have you ever wondered what the elephant in the
room is during those meetings?
As a starting point, Family meetings in Intensive Care normally
only take place if the situation of your critically ill loved one
is dire and serious. That could mean that your critically ill loved
one is so sick that the odds are against his or her favour.
It could also mean that your critically ill loved one is about to
die. That's at least what you and your family get told and that's
how the Intensive Care might frame the situation. How do you frame
the situation?
How do you react?
How do you know it's true? What do you do in order to validate what
you have just been told? Can you validate the information you are
given at all, if you have no or only a basic understanding of
Intensive Care and medicine?
Let's take the emotion out of the situation for a moment.
The emotions that Families are usually feeling when their loved one
is critically ill in Intensive Care is fear, frustration, overwhelm
and the feeling of vulnerability. What I also often see is that
Family's are more often than not paralysed with fear. And it's
extremely difficult to eliminate these emotions.
So, you are going into a Family meeting and you are feeling all
these overwhelming emotions and that's certainly not a good
starting point to go into any meeting. And then there's the
perceived power dynamics. On the one hand...
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Sincerely,
your Friend
Patrik
Patrik Hutzel
Critical Care Nurse
Founder& Editor
INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM
support@intensivecarehotline.com